Beyond The Past
by sign144
Summary: Jasper and Bella have been together since the beginning. She is like a daughter to him in the way that he feels connected and protective of her. On a fateful day he meets the woman of his dreams and she leads them to their future family. But as Bella a
1. PROLOGUE

**AN: Welcome Back, FanFiction. I know that it hasn't been that long since we finished "New World" but I just couldn't stop myself. I have to thank Dana Rose for this idea it is priceless. I hope everyone enjoys. I do have a few housekeeping things to let everyone know. First off I have decided to change Double Posting Thursdays to Wednesdays. If you want to know why take a look at your calendar for the rest of the year :). Lastly I will be doing sneak peaks but if you want to see them then you have to check out my website blog. I know that it is shameless promoting but I happen to be really proud of it and I would like some feedback. Plus I thought it would be fun. The site is http:// justplaint (dot) webs (dot) com. Without further ado, I give you our new story.**

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**Name: **_Beyond The Past_

**Category: **Drama/Action/Romance

**Rating: **M-Mature (simply to be on the save side because of language)

**Summary: **___Jasper and Bella have been together since the beginning. She is like a daughter to him in the way that he feels connected and protective of her. On a fateful day he meets the woman of his dreams and she leads them to their future family. But as Bella and Jasper begin to find true love and their soul mates and evil from their past surfaces to destroy them and all they have build. (All Vampire)_

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_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Prologue

**Jasper POV**

_Mexico/Texas Border, 1935_

I was leaving. It had been too many years and I knew it was coming. So had Maria and she had fought me tooth and nail but tonight had been the last straw.

Every since Peter had snuck back to tell me of the life that he and Charlotte had created my days here had been numbered. Sure I had suspected that every vampire didn't live like Maria but she was all I knew. She was all I had ever known. How could I ever think of making it without her? And then there was Bella.

My sweet Bella that didn't deserve this life; that should have and would have died decades ago if it wasn't for me. The guilt of it still weighed on me. She was my first kill. She was the first human blood that I tasted and every time I looked into those crimson eyes I hated myself again for what I had robbed her of.

I could still remember the day I had stolen her from the mortal world and brought her into this one. You would think that it would be hazy like a dream but no it was the only clear part of that day. Waking up after three torture filled days of pain and anguish, my mind had been haunted by my last human memory. Those three ladies on the road, eyes of red, kiss of death and then pain. Nothing but pain and the thought that I was going to hell and that I would never see my family again. I had been right. For my hell started the moment I ran out into the town and found her.

What she was doing out there in the middle of the field I will never know, for Bella can't remember, but there she was. The smell of her was so floral, so intoxicating. There was no way I could have stopped. There was no way I should have stopped. Except for the guilt and sadness that I suddenly felt. It was strange. Almost as if I could feel her every emotion and all it did was resonate within me and double my guilt and sadness at the thought of what I was doing.

If I had known then what I was damning her to then I would have finished sucking her dry but at the time I didn't know how a vampire was made. I didn't know that by stopping there would be no way to save her; no way to return her to her family. Her screams started almost immediately and I rushed back to the only person I could. The only person I knew would understand. I begged and pleaded for her to help. To make it stop but all she did was laugh. She looked at me as she remarked how foolish I was to think anything that had happened could be reversed.

It was in that second that I hated the striking woman before me and I loved the beautiful child in my arms. True she wasn't a child in the sense of age for she looked to be somewhere within her teen years but she became my child. I knew that I would protect her for as long as we were to remain on this earth. No harm would come to her. She was my penance for all that I had become and I willingly accepted it.

Yet when she woke she looked at me with love. Like I was the father that she had never had and I knew I didn't deserve it. I tried to get her to talk about her life before me but she wouldn't except to mention that she had a mother, three brothers, and a fiancé that she had left behind. She never mentioned her father and I couldn't bring myself to pry. It was hard enough knowing that I had taken her away from a strong family and a man that had probably loved her more than anything. I didn't need to add a hurting father pinning away for is lone daughter.

So I took her under my wing. I taught her everything. How to hunt, how to fight, how to survive and she needed every bit of it. We both hated hunting and fighting but we had each other and though we both wished there was another way to exist this was all we knew except for the fact that Maria would kill us both if we tried to leave.

Maria still wanted Bella dead though and tried all the time but Bella had a special gift. A gift that far surpassed mine. While I had learned that I could sense and manipulate the feeling and emotions around me Bella could protect. It was like she could block any mental gift any other vampire had. They couldn't touch her. Not only could they not touch her but in a battle she could make them not see her. It was quite amazing and all though Maria hated her and wanted her dead she couldn't deny that it made sense to keep her around.

That was how Bella had survived what we had named the "year curse". Maria always had the new vampires destroyed at their year mark claiming that they had outlived their usefulness. When the truth was that they had lost most of their newborn strength. I always hated those days. Gathering up all those that were meant for the fire.

Peter and Charlotte had escaped during one of those days and as much as I had wanted to run with them I knew Bella was still at camp. And if I left without her Maria would either kill her or torture her and I couldn't let either happen. So I had stayed. Two more decades I had stayed and Maria had grown more power hungry and vengeful.

She resented my power and she hated Bella for hers. She knew that between the two of us we were the only thing keeping her precious army together and still she wished us gone. She tried her best to hide it but I felt it. Every sly look and whispered thought was like a rock dropped on my shoulders and I knew it was just a matter of time before she acted.

I had been trying to find a way out when Peter had shown up. He knew how much I hated this life and although we weren't as close and Bella and I he had come back for us. I knew this was the moment and I had expected Maria to be furious but I hadn't expected this.

She had all but ripped me apart. She had bit me and thrown me against the walls. She had called me names that I had never heard before in languages that I didn't even know existed. She had clawed me and drawn venom from veins that had long since stopped carrying blood. It had taken hours to finally penetrate her emotions and calm her down. I had tried to force acceptance into her but she had simply sneered at me and threatened the one thing I cared about in this world.

"If you leave I will kill her." She had laughed. "I don't care if you take her with you or not. I will find her and I will destroy her."

It had taken all of my control to fight my anger. I knew that was what she wanted. If I had let go of my anger then I would let go of hers and she would destroy me and then Bella. I couldn't let that happen.

"You will never touch her" I spat while backing slowly out of the tent. I ran as soon as my feet touched the cool grass below.

"You think you won but you didn't." I could hear her yell. "I'll find her. I swear to you I will and when you're not looking she'll be mine."

I didn't stop until I reached Bella's tent. I walked in and looked to Bella's cot. I still didn't understand why she felt the need to lay down at night. We couldn't sleep but if you looked at her you would swear that she was still human and passed out.

"Bella" I whispered knowing that she would hear me. "Bella we have to go."

"Jazzy?" She jumped up. "What's wrong?"

"We're leaving."

"Leaving?" Shock echoed through her voice. "What happened?"

I stopped and smiled at her. "You didn't hear?"

She laughed shyly. "Just a little."

"Look Bells, Maria threatened not only me but you and we have to go."

"She bit you too." Bella looked like an angry five year old.

I couldn't help the laugh that escaped my lips. "I thought you only listened a little?"

"I might have spied a little too."

"Then why didn't you help me?" I felt my anger from Maria rising up.

"I did" Bella looked at me with wide eyes. "You didn't really think you got the upper hand simply by manipulating her feeling did you?" She chuckled at me. "Really Jazzy, you're good but you're not that good."

"Thanks" I finished putting the last of her books in the duffle that I was packing. I looked over to see her placing the rest of her things in a separate bag of her own. "Do you have everything?"

"Yeah, I think so." I sensed her nerves.

"Don't be nervous. Peter and Charlotte are waiting for us." I wrapped her under my arm.

"It's not that. It's…."

"What?"

"Do you really think she will track us down?" She looked up at me and I felt fear. The first fear I had felt from her since that long ago day in the field when she had first seen me. "Do you think she really means to kill me?"

I wanted to lie to her and say no but I knew Maria. She meant every word and she would never stop. "Let's not worry about it today." I dodged. "Come let's get going."

I could tell Bella knew what would be chasing us but she smiled up at me and I felt the fear leave her. "Okay"

I took her hand and we ran faster than both of us ever had toward the spot that we were to met Peter and Charlotte. As we moved further and further away my emotions felt lighter and lighter. It was like I was leaving a piece of myself back at that camp. Still, as my body lighten my dead heart sunk.

Maria would be coming after us without a doubt. And she would do all that she could to get Bella and that was my fault. But she wouldn't win. Whether I had to train Bella harder or, God forbid, go to the Volturi she would not get Bella. I looked over at the young girl running alongside me. I had made a promise to her more than a hundred years ago and I indented to keep it. Even if it took my last un-needed breath.

**AN: Okay now it's time to let me know what you think. I will be waiting. See you on our new day and special time next Wednesday.**

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	2. Chapter 1: HOPE

_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Chapter 1: HOPE

**Jasper POV**

_Philadelphia, 1940_

"Jazzy what's wrong?" Bella asked.

I knew that she was worried about me but I couldn't explain to her what was wrong. I didn't even know what was wrong myself.

"Nothing Bells." I could tell by her look she believed me about as much as I believed myself. I couldn't put my finger on it but I knew I wasn't happy.

"Come on Jazzy, talk to me." Bella pushed. "I know something has been wrong every since we left Peter and Charlotte. Do you miss them?"

"No" I told her. "At least I don't miss them enough to cause me to worry about it." I knew I couldn't keep her in the dark much longer. "I don't know Bella. I know something is wrong but I don't know what it is."

"Is it me?" She looked down shyly. "Would you feel better if I had stayed with Peter and Charlotte?"

"Of course not, Kitten." I used my pet name for her. I had called her that since that first year when all she would do is cling to me. "I would be even more miserable if you weren't here."

"You sure." She looked up at me hesitantly.

"Absolutely." I put my arm around her. "Who else would put up with me?"

"That's true." She shook her head and smiled.

"Thanks" I pushed against her lightly. "I was joking, you know."

"So was I, you know."

"See, I need you." I squeezed her nose. "No one else could keep me so humble."

"I would say that that was true again but then we would just start the same conversation all over." She pushed my hand away. "So I will be the adult and refrain."

I laughed at her backwards way of looking at what she had just said. I stood and headed toward the door.

"Where you going?" She hoped up excitedly.

"Just for a walk and no you can't come." I stopped her before she even asked.

"Why not?" She pouted. "We both need to hunt. It's been almost two months. I know how much you hate it, so do I, but we have to."

"I know and we will." I closed my eyes not relishing the idea of going out and taking another life. "But tomorrow. Right now I just need to think."

"And you can't do that with me?"

"Are you kidding Ms. Chatty-Cathy?" I joked as she stuck her tongue out at me.

"Fine" She huffed. "Go do your thinking. I don't care."

I found myself laughing at her again. "How old are you?"

"Haha" She mocked. "I'm the same age as you."

"Nope I'm four years older." I stuck my tongue out at her.

"Are you serious?" She looked me over. "You're really going to play the actual age card?"

"My twenty-one trumps your seventeen every time." I smiled at her.

"Whatever" She rolled her eyes. "Go on your stupid little walk. I'll just sit here and be bored out my mind."

I smiled. "I was going to and I'm sure you can find something to do to entertain yourself." I closed the door just as I heard another "whatever" whispered on the other side.

I shook my head as I walked down the stairs of our rented apartment building. Why we chose to stay in a nine floor walk up I will never know. Sure we didn't get tired walking up all these stairs but the blood alone in this building should be enough to drive us crazy. Still we had stayed here for the last week and had managed not to kill any of our neighbors. But Bella was right. If we didn't hunt soon this would be the least safe place in Philly.

I opened the door of the building and was hit with a blast of cold air. I should have brought a jacket. If for no other reason than to keep up pretenses. So far no one suspected us but if I kept walking out in the middle of fall without any time of protective wear on then they would start.

I stood there for a minute debating whether to go back up and get my jacket but in the end I decided that I wouldn't be gone long and since I had a sweater on people would probably assume that I had just left it somewhere. Which was true after all so what was the point. That seemed to be my mantra lately, what was the point. I couldn't explain it and I knew that it didn't make sense but that was how I was feeling.

It had been five years since we had left Maria and two since we had left Peter and Charlotte and still I felt this despair. It wasn't as bad as with Maria but it all over me. Peter and Charlotte had felt it and although Bella wouldn't say it I knew she felt it too. It was like nothing had changed.

Sure we weren't with Maria worried that one day she would turn on us and kill us all in a fit of rage but now we had to worry that she would be waiting around every corner. We weren't fighting and killing innocents as well as immortals repeatedly but we still had to feed and so the death toll still rose whenever we entered a new city. So really what had changed?

That was the real reason I had wanted to leave Peter and Charlotte. They felt no opposition to how we lived. They didn't see why I hurt every time I took another life. They didn't feel the emotion of my prey as their life drained from their bodies into mine. The fear, the loss, the agony, the despair. Nothing stopped it. Each time it was as if I was still in that field with Bella in my arms and her blood coating my tongue.

Bella understood better than most but even she didn't fully appreciate the emotional torment that was heaved upon me with every person that crossed our path. It was like in some way she could sense my emotions in those moments and she would always turn away. She never watched as I fed and I still didn't know if it was to give me privacy or because of memories. No Bella never watched but neither did I and I knew that was out of guilt.

Guilt for what we were doing, guilt for another life lost, guilt that it was my fault Bella was like this. Nothing, no amount of time, could take that particular guilt away. No matter how much she seemed fine with our life or no matter how much love and devotion I could feel coming from her it wouldn't change the fact that I had destroyed her live. That was a guilt I would have to bear for eternity.

I continued to walk realizing that I was going further than I had planned but not ready to go home yet. I needed to figure out a solution to whatever was bothering me. I was miserable and I was making Bella miserable also but I couldn't figure it out. What was wrong with me? It wasn't that I missed any part of our old life or that I wanted to be alone. Bella was my one constant. I would be crazy if she wasn't here. So what was wrong?

I passed a couple holding hands and felt the emotional current coming off them. She was beyond excited and he was a nervous wreck. I turned and watched curiously as they turn into a dinner across the street. What could make him so nervous and her so excited? I saw him pat his jacket as he held the door open for her and I found myself more curious. I turned and headed in the direction of the dinner. Peaking in the window and watching this couple sit quietly across from each other.

I must have stood in that spot for thirty minutes or more before the boy in question stood up and dropped down to one knee. I saw tears in the girl's eye but I knew she was happy. The smile on her face said it all. I found myself smiling right along with her. I looked back to the boy as saw the pride that filled his eyes as she nodded her head yes. I would never have that. I would never have a woman that would feel my life with that kind of nervousness and pride. Sure I loved Bella but it wasn't the same. Not like the couple hugging within this restaurant. That option was taken from me decades ago.

I made my way back across the street but just as I decided to head back home the clouds opened up and rain began to drench the city. I pulled my shoulders up cursing the fact that I hadn't gone back up to get my jacket. Sure the rain would affect me physically but it was damn annoying. I looked around for some sort of shelter and my eyes spotted the same dinner that I had been staring in not ten minutes past.

I shook my head to clear the water from my eyes and proceeded back across the street. I found myself hesitating before entering. There were a lot of people inside and unlike Bella and my apartment there would be no doors or flights of stairs to separating us. I needed to feed and I wasn't sure if I would be able to control myself with so many walking distractions floating up to my senses. Yet if I tried to make it home it would be worse. People always smelled better in the rain and at least the patrons of this dinner had all been inside before the rain had started.

I ducked inside shaking my head once again when the smell hit me. Not the overwhelming smell of blood that I had expected but the smell of another vampire. I looked around quickly but everyone appeared normal and human until I saw her. She was like no one I had ever seen before. She was more than beautiful; she was a word that hadn't been invented yet. She turned towards me and smiled. I blinked rapidly. She smiled? Who was she? Could she be working for Maria? Was Bella in danger right now?

I wanted to leave and check but I couldn't pull my eyes away from hers. Those warm honey colored eyes were calling to me. Honey colored? I knew of no vampire that didn't have crimson eyes. What was going on here? I watched as she moved slowly off the stool that she had been sitting on and made her way over to me. I backed up slowly so as not to draw attention from the other dinners guest. I should have run but the emotions coming off of her were like none I had ever felt, human or immortal. I was drawn in completely.

She stopped hesitantly in front of me and we both stood there staring. Her smile wavered slightly but she never removed her eyes from mine. After minutes that felt like hours she let out a high pitched laugh as whispered, "You've kept me waiting a long time."

Her voice was more angelic than Maria's had been and I had thought that was impossible. I dipped my head as if to remove my hat when I realized that I didn't have one on. I looked down sheepishly, "Sorry Ma'am." My long lost southern accent found its way into my reply which only made her smile bigger.

I found myself smiling too. For the first time in almost a hundred years I was smiling and it was genuine. Of course I had smiled with Bella but there had always been that underlying guilt with her. Yet with this amazing pixie like woman in front of me I felt nothing but relief and…..hope. I saw her hand reach toward me. It was shaking and I felt her fear. I looked back up into her eyes and realized she was afraid I would turn away from her. How could she think that? I could run back to Maria easier than hurting her.

I reached out and let her lead me to a table in the far corner of the dinner. We sat opposite each other simply holding hands and staring into each other's eyes. Her smile never left her face and the relief I was feeling from her was astounding. She really had been waiting for me. But why?

I cleared my throat nervously, when had I ever been nervous, and spoke. "Do I know you?"

She laughed that light heavenly laugh again. "No, not yet at least." She continued to smile. "But I feel like I've known you my whole life."

My eyes widen and I didn't know what to say. We had never met but she felt this strongly about me. Not to mention that I felt as if I was developing some pretty strong feeling toward her myself.

"It a long story and I'm trying to figure out the best way to tell you." She spoke again and I found myself wishing she had never stopped. I didn't think I could ever get tired of hearing her voice.

"You can tell me anything." I realized as soon as the words left my mouth that they were true. There was nothing she could say that would make me leave her. Even if she told me that Maria had sent her I would have to find away to protect Bella and keep her in my life.

"Well, it might sound a little crazy." That smile wavered again but never went completely away. I smiled back in encouragement hoping that she would continue. It seemed to work because she started into a story that left me speechless.

"Okay but remember you asked for it." She giggled as if remembering a private joke. "Two years ago I woke to this life in a forest. I had no memory of anything prior. There was no one with me and I had no idea how I had come to be in that area." I squeezed her hand wishing I could go back in time and be there with her.

"As I began to wonder trying to find my way back to somewhere, anywhere, I was struck with a strange feeling. My body began to shake and my breathing increased. My vision blurred and before I knew what was happening I saw this." My eyes narrowed. "I saw this city, this dinner, and you." My eyes went from narrow to wide in the span of a second. What could she mean that she saw me? I willed her to go on.

"I know it sounds strange and completely unbelievable. Trust me if it hadn't happened to me then I wouldn't believe it myself but it did. I saw you and I knew that my future was with you." Her smile widen and without thought I smiled. "I came back to myself and found that I was sitting against a tree and my body and breath were back to normal. I rose to continue walking and was struck yet again with the same sensations. I was prepared to see you again but I saw a different man." I felt myself become angered at that statement. How dare she tell me that I was her future and then tell me that I was to share her with someone else. I could never share her.

"He was older or at least he seemed that way but he wasn't the only one I saw. There were five of them. Three men and two women and they all had yellow honey colored eyes." I sucked in breath that was completely not needed. There were others like her. What did it mean? "I stayed on the ground after that one not sure if there would be another of what I was coming to call 'visions' or not. Sure enough I found myself shaking a third time. This time I saw the same family but they were in a wooded area in Alaska. They were spread out but they were hunting animals." She paused waiting for me to understand. When she realized that I had not made the connection she hoped she continued. "They were feeding from animals." This time I was sure that my eyes would pop out of my head they were so wide. My mouth was open and my senses were completely besieged.

Was this possible? Could we survive without feeding from humans? If so would it be the same? So many questions ran through my mine. What this could mean for me, for Bella, would she understand and be open to it. I couldn't wait to share this news with her. I looked across at this savior that sat there still smiling up at me.

"Will you come with me?" I asked. We had to tell Bella. I had to introduce them.

"Anywhere" She breathed.

I took the hand that I hadn't let go of and lead her outside. It had stopped raining but it didn't matter to me. For the first time in my existence I felt hope and elation and love. I looked at this pixie standing next to me radiating joy and I knew I loved her. She was what I had been searching for. My other half. Yes I had Bella but she was more a daughter or sister to me, but this creature beside me whose beauty defied words was my soul.

We took off toward my apartment arm and arm and contentment spread through me. This was as it should be. What had she called the strangers in her vision; a family. Yes that was what we would be. We would be a family. Bella, myself, and this angel that had given me the greatest gift of my life. Love.

**AN: Wow you guys are great. Eleven reviews as of yesterday and so many story alerts and favorite stories that my head was spinning. This is so amazing!! I can't believe it. Thank you so much. Okay so let's keep it going for this week. With two chapters I think we can definitely double that don't you agree? I can't wait to see what else you guys think.**

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	3. Chapter 2: SURPRISE

_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Chapter 2: SURPRISE

**Bella POV**

Jasper was hurting. I knew it but I couldn't help. I had tried talking to him but that hadn't helped either. Maybe I should have stayed with Peter and Charlotte. I knew he felt responsible for me but I didn't want him feeling miserable because he couldn't tell me that he wanted to be alone. Maybe I could leave now while he's out. But would that be fair? We have been together for almost a hundred years. I think that deserves at least a goodbye.

That settled I began to gather up my things and pack. I wanted to be ready when he returned so that he couldn't talk me out of it. I didn't wait to leave and I knew that Jasper could with a single look convince me to stay but I hoped that it would be harder if my things were already set. I put my coat on and waited.

Where would I go? The sudden thought popped into my mind as I sat there strumming my fingers against my knee. I couldn't go back to Maria. That would be like signing my own death warrant. I didn't know where Peter and Charlotte were and I didn't really feel like being a third wheel. Sure it was okay when Jasper was there. Even if we didn't feel for each other as Peter and Charlotte did it was nice to have someone to talk to. But to be with them alone, I shook my head, I wasn't sure that would work.

And there was always the chance that Maria would make good on her threat and come after me. I knew that Peter and Charlotte liked me fine enough but I couldn't see them fighting for me. Especially not the way that Jasper would.

Maybe I should go to Italy. I had never met the Volturi but I knew that they coveted power and whether I liked it or not I did have a power. Maybe they would protect me in case Maria decided to attack. But would she hurt Jasper if she came for me and I wasn't here? What if I could convince Jasper to come to Italy with me? He had a power and maybe we could both find shelter there.

"Bella?" I heard him open the door. Something was different in his voice. "Bella, where are you?"

"Who's Bella?" I heard a woman's voice. Why would a woman be with Jasper? Surely he wouldn't bring Maria here?

"She's my…." I heard Jasper hesitate. Well it definitely wasn't Maria. He sounded nervous and my non-beating heart sunk. Yes, he wanted me gone. "She's with me." He concluded.

"Oh" I heard the other voice sound sad. Who was this voice?

"I'm in here Jasper." Might as well get this over with. I stood waiting to say goodbye.

"Bella, thank goodness. You will never guess…" Jasper stopped looking down at the bags around me. The little pixie like creature that must be the other voice I heard stopped suddenly too. She looked at me with a hesitate smile and a sadness in her eyes. If I didn't know any better I would have sworn that I had just stolen her favorite doll or something.

"Bella?" Jasper dropped her hand. "What's going on?"

I took a deep breath preparing myself for the heartache that was to come. "Jasper I've decided that I can't burden you any longer." I started and noticed that the small woman was staring at me in shock. "I know that you haven't been happy and although you say that it isn't me I feel that you would be happier with the responsibility that you feel toward me. Therefore, I've decided to strike out on my own."

He just stared at me. His eyes fluctuating between shock and amusement. "Bella" He finally spoke. "What are you think?"

"I just told you." I wined, angry with myself for letting this strange woman witness my heartbreak. "Jasper, I want you to be happy and clearly you're not."

"But I told you that has nothing to do with you." He argued. "Besides none of that matters anymore." He smiled and it was a real smile. "I want you to meet someone. Bella this is…is…." He looked at the woman next to him.

"Alice" She supplied.

"Alice" He made her name sound like a word of worship. I found myself a little jealous. Not because I wanted him to look at me in the same manner as he was look upon her but because she obviously had made him happy somehow and I hadn't been able to.

"Alice this is Bella." He motioned to me but never took his eyes from her. "She is my….my…." He looked at me and the look in his eyes made me laugh. For all of his superior, militant ways he was every bit a boy of twenty-one right now.

"I'm his….well daughter sound so wrong considering you're only like four years and three days older than me but maybe a sister." I tried to lighten the moment.

"Yes" Jasper smiled at me. "Yes, like a sister. I like that." He sounded so relieved that I laughed even harder. But nothing could top the look on Alice's face. She went from sad stolen doll girl to animated hyper pixie in seconds.

"Oh but that is just wonderful." She ran over and wrapped me in the tightest hug I had ever received. "I don't understand why I didn't see you but it doesn't matter because this is perfect. We will be sisters to, you and I, I just know it."

I looked down at her and couldn't bring myself to say anything. What did she mean she didn't see me? I was standing right here being crushed to death by her. How could she not see me?

"Jasper" I coughed.

"Alice" He whispered and she let me go but still kept a tight grip on my hands.

"Why would you ever consider leaving?" She looked up into my eyes. "We are a family now." I looked over at Jasper and the beaming smile on his face was without a doubt the most enchanting thing I had ever seen.

"Besides we will be heading to Alaska soon so it is probably good that you already are packed." She continued. "Oh the Cullens are going to be so excited to see the three of us but first you two really need to hunt." She looked back and forth between Jasper and I.

I wanted to say something but I was too confused. She seemed to skip subjects like my friends and I use to skip rope. What did she mean by Alaska and who were the Cullens?

"Jasper can I talk to you for a minute?" I looked over at him.

"Hmm sure." He looked at Alice. "You don't mind, do you?" My mouth dropped open. Who was this girl that had Jasper nervous and asking permission to talk to me? He hadn't even done that with Maria.

"No" She smiled up at him. "Go handle things and then we will go hunt and I'll teach you how." Why would she need to teach him how to hunt? Jasper and I walked into his bedroom and closed the door.

"Jasper I don't know what to say." I started. There were so many questions in my mind that I couldn't voice them if I tried.

"I know you must be confused but trust me Bella this could be a good thing." He looked so hopeful.

"But you don't even know her."

"I know, but…she's different." I looked at him in complete shock.

"And you trust her?"

"Yes"

I took a deep breath and really stared at him. He looked so different from when he had left earlier. It was like a weight had been lifted off of him or he had lightened in some way. I couldn't explain it but the Jasper standing before me was not the same Jasper I had known for almost a hundred years and yet he still was.

"Okay" I shrugged. "I trust you and if you trust her well I guess that means that I trust her too."

"Thank you Bella" He hugged me.

"Besides" I joked. "Anyone that can make you this nervous can't be all bad."

He just laughed at me and shook his head. We were headed back out the door when a couple of my questions forced themselves to the surface.

"Hey, Jazzy" He stopped. "Why are we going to Alaska? And who are the Cullens? And why does she need to teach you to hunt?"

He laughed and grabbed my hands. "It's the best thing Bella." He looked so excited. "Come I will have Alice explain it to you." And with that he dragged me out of the room.

"Oh Bella" Alice was hugging me again before we even made it back into the room. "I'm so glad you accept me."

"Uh sure, no problem" I looked over a Jasper. What was her thing with hugging?

"Now I know you have questions" She pulled me over to the only couch in the room. "So let's sit down and I will explain everything."

Twenty minutes later and I was in shock once again. A whole family of animal drinking vampires. It didn't make any sense and yet it did. We feed off blood and animals have blood so why couldn't they substitute for humans. Why had we never thought of that before?

I knew Jasper hated feeding and I just always assumed it had to do with his guilt over me but what if it was more. What if he hated feeding because he hated taking an innocent life which was how I had always felt? I didn't blame Jazz for what happened with me even though I knew he blamed himself but I also didn't like to be the one that ended another life.

Mine hadn't been the perfect life that I believe Jasper had convinced himself of. I had been glad that I was changed. That I didn't have to go back to that farm or the idiot that awaited me. Jasper had saved me and that was why I could never blame him. I had tried to tell him that over and over but he never believed me. But if there was a way that we could live without destroying someone that might have a happy life then I was all for it.

"Okay" I looked at Alice. "What do we do?"

She smiled up at me and grabbed my hand. She really had personal space issues. She reached for Jasper and he jumped to her side. I smothered my laugh and followed them out into the night. She headed away from the city and into a densely covered park. Once we were covered she took off running at vampire speed. Jasper and I raced along following her scent. Suddenly she stopped and Jasper ran straight into her. They both tumbled to the ground and I let out a huge laugh.

"Sorry" The boyishness of Jaspers voice made me stop laughing. I looked over to see them staring into each other's eyes. I looked away quickly. It was amazing the depth of emotion they seemed to be exulting. I had just felt like I walked in on a private moment between my parents or something.

I stood there awkwardly hoping that they would move but they didn't. I cleared my throat after a couple minutes had passed and they both seemed to come out of whatever trance like state they had been in.

"Alright" Alice became all homeroom teacher and knelt down between us. We both followed suit. "It's not all that different from hunting humans except that you must make sure that there aren't humans around when you start." She smiled sheepishly. "Obviously once you let your instincts take over you will hunt anything that appeals to you. And since you two have been hunting human I would assume all your vampires lives then they would appeal to you the most."

Jasper and I nodded our heads. She seemed to like that we were following her so intently. "I don't smell any humans around so I think we are safe." She looked from Jasper to me. "Now just close your eyes and take a deep breath and see what comes to you."

We both did actually what she said. With my eyes closed I was surprised how much of the forest I smelled. I could taste the bark of the trees and the dew on the grass. Pollen was the most potent of the smells but it also was the worst. I was about to open my eyes and tell her what I had sensed when a new smell drifted toward me. This smell was familiar if not more woodsy then my normal fare. I opened my now black eyes and looked toward Alice and Jasper. She nodded and I took off at a break neck pace.

I couldn't feel Jasper or Alice behind me but I also wasn't about to let them steal my catch. I slowed when I reached a clearing. There sitting quietly was a deer. His ears were pulled back as if he sensed danger but he didn't move. I crept up as slowly as I could toward him not wanting to scare him off. Not that the chase didn't sound appealing but if he ran Jasper or Alice might get him before I could. I lifted my foot and heard the branch underneath make a slight noise. The deer heard it too and looked in my direction.

Before he could run I jumped high in the air and landed squarely on his back. He bucked up under me but I held tight wrapping my hands around his neck and cracking silently. He crumbled and I ripped into his throat. The liquid flowing into my open mouth wasn't as tantalizing as normal but it wasn't all together that bad. Before I was full he was drained. I didn't like that. Normally one human could sustain me for two months; three if I pushed. But I felt as if I could feed again.

I pushed the dead carcass off me and stood to find Jasper or Alice. I breathed deep and noticed another scent. A more intoxicating scent. I ran swiftly toward it and pounced before I regained thought. When it was dry I came back to myself and noticed this wasn't a deer. It was a lion of some sort. I felt fuller this time. I made my way back to where I had last saw Jasper and Alice but they weren't there. I sat quietly against a tree and thought.

Nothing was as it had been hours before. Jasper had found someone that it was apparent he was falling in love with and we were set to travel across the country to meet up with this so called family to join. All on the word of a girl that barely reached my shoulder and was less than a decade old. It didn't make sense but I trusted Jasper and he seemed to trust Alice.

And still I couldn't help but wonder what this meant for me. Would Jasper still want me around once he had a new family? Would his unneeded guilt lead him to keep me here when all he wanted was to be with Alice? She had said that she didn't see me in her visions could that be because I wasn't meant to be there?

"Bella" I heard Jasper call out. "Bella"

"I'm here" I called back. He and Alice came walking through the forest hand in hand and jealousy stabbed me. I didn't want Jasper in the way but I hated that he had found someone more important to him than me.

He looked at me quizzically and I just shook it off. For once glad that he couldn't feel my emotions. The last thing I needed was him thinking that I was pinning away for him.

"Are you two ready to go?" I asked with the best smile I could on my face.

"Yep" Jasper was more animated than I had ever seen him. "Wasn't it great Bella? No fear or guilt."

There it was. I knew that he had felt it but he had never voiced it until now. "Yeah" I smiled tightly. "It was great."

"It will get some getting used to" Alice added. "And in the beginning you will still be tempted by human blood. It took me almost a year to not feel the craving and another six months to gradually rejoin society."

I looked over at her. "So we need to avoid people for a year?" I couldn't imagine.

"I'm not sure" She answered. "I would think that since you were living in an apartment building with a number of humans that you would be okay but it might not be a bad idea. Just to be safe."

"Then how are we supposed to make it to Alaska?" Jasper asked.

"I was actually thinking that we could spend like the next year somewhere other than Alaska." She explained. "Somewhere woodsy where you two could really learn to control yourself better and then make our way to the Cullens."

I looked at Jasper waiting to see what he would say. I knew that there was always a chance that Maria could come after us and that was why we stayed to larger cities. It was part of the reason we had learned to control our thirst so we would be able to blend in and live amongst them so that we would be where she wouldn't think to look. But somewhere out in the forest where we were the only three was like walking around with a target on our backs.

"I don't know Alice" Jasper looked at me and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was. "Maybe we would learn faster with being around humans then away from them or at least with the Cullens."

She looked so disappointed but she smiled all the same. "Fine if that is how you both feel then we will make our way to the Cullens and try to stay away from people as much as we can."

Jasper pulled her into a hug and my jaw dropped. He had never hugged anyone like that; not even me. He pulled me into a one arm hug and I had seen him with Maria a few times when she had gotten it in her head that they should be mated but never with this much emotion. Again I had to turn my head and again I felt that stab of jealousy.

Could I find something like that? Is there a possibility that someone was out there waiting for me and Alice had waited for Jasper? Was there a chance that I could love too?

**AN: Okay so what do you think of Double posting Wednesdays? I like it personally. It gives me some time to respond to everyone's reviews. Also what do you think of my posting a sneak peek of next week's updates on my website? Let me know and be sure to head over and check our next week's preview. If you can name where last week's preview was I will send you a shout out next week. Talk to you guys soon.**

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	4. Chapter 3: HOME

_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Chapter 3: HOME

**Bella POV**

_Denali, Alaska 1943_

Three years. I still couldn't believe it had taken that long to make it to Alaska. First Jasper had had a harder time with the transition than I had and we had needed to hide out for almost a year for him to be able to be around anyone. Then we had tried to stick to back roads and forest but since we could only really travel by night that had gotten old really fast. Finally we had just given up and found a small house outside of some town called Forks, Washington and hung out there for close to a year and a half before finally making it here.

Three years and here we stood. All of us terrified to knock on the door. Well not all of us. Alice was chopping at the bit to run up and probably hug them all too but she was restraining herself because she could feel our apprehension. Probably more Jaspers apprehension than mine since Jasper was sending out nervous like a parent giving out candy at Halloween. Once again I was glad that his power did affect me. I could sense his emotions trying to get in but they could penetrate my shield.

I had to give it to Alice though she was really doing a good job calming him down. In all the years that I had spent with him I had never seen anyone have the affect of Alice on him. It was humbling. Jasper had become a new person overnight. He clung to Alice as if he was stranded on an island somewhere and she was his only way back home.

And as much as I hated to admit it Alice wasn't bad. In fact if she would stop hugging me ever other minute and trying to get me to go shopping with her in all the others she would be almost perfect. It was apparent that she loved Jasper as if he was the only man on this earth and would do absolutely anything for him and him for her. She treated me like I was her long lost sister or at least the way I always assumed a sister would treat you. Plus she had somehow made Jasper and I closer. I still wasn't sure how she did it but it just seemed like we were really a family.

"Come on Jazz, everything will be fine." She smiled at him while rubbing his hand. "Trust me."

"I do but" Jasper stopped and looked at me. I knew what he was thinking. We both carried so much baggage. Between our checkered past and the fact that everything still wasn't settled with Maria it was a lot to lie at the feet of total strangers. And the Cullens were total strangers no matter how much Alice had told us about them.

"Look you two." Alice placed her hands on her puny sized hips and looked back and forth between us. "I have told you all that you need to know about our new family. They will love each and everyone one of us."

"Well, not me" I interrupted. "Or at least you don't know if they will love me considering you still can't see me."

"Isabella Marie Swan, that is enough from you." Alice pouted in my direction. "I am having a hard enough time keeping your brother calm I do not need your jokes right now. "

"Sorry Mom" I whispered knowing that she hated it when I called her that. She still hadn't gotten over the fact that I had once referred to Jasper as my father and asked if that would make her my step-mother.

"I swear you will be the death of me." She closed her eyes and shook her head.

"Sounding more like a mother every day" I chuckled.

Alice simply rolled her eyes at me and concentrated on Jasper who was surprisingly holding in a laugh. Despite Alice nothing made Jasper laugh faster than my smart ass mouth.

"Well since you seem to be in a better mood," Alice started. "I say we go and knock right now." And she sprinted off to the door before either of us could stop her.

She was just about to raise her hand when the door swung open abruptly. "Finally, I thought you three were going to stand out there forever." A tall blonde woman answered with a snotty air. She had to be the most beautiful woman alive or dead. I had never seen such beauty in all my years. "May we help you?"

"No need Rosalie." Alice smiled and sure enough wrapped her arms around her in a patented Alice hug. "I'm your new sister."

"Excuse me" Rosalie pushed against her.

"Sorry I get ahead of myself sometimes." Alice backed up slightly. "Is the rest of the family here?"

Rosalie gave her an alarmed look but called out to at least two other Cullens. "Carlisle? Esme?"

Two more strikingly gorgeous people showed up at the door looking at the three of us with questioning eyes.

"Oh Carlisle" Alice gushed. "Finally. I can't tell you how long I have waited to see you." Again another hug. I simply shook my head. If they didn't get use to it soon it would break her heart.

"I'm sorry" Carlisle looked down at her with an amused expression. "Do I know you?"

"Sorry" Alice backed up again. "I'm Alice, your new daughter, and this is Jasper and Bella. We are all here to join your family. So if you could just direct us to which bedrooms would be ours that would be fabulous?" She finished with a smile.

"Excuse me?" The tall blonde asked again.

"I'm sorry" I stepped in. Alice would have us thrown out in no time. "You have to excuse my step-mom Alice but she can be a little overwhelming to say the least." I looked over and saw Alice narrow her eyes at me and Jasper bit back his smile.

"My name is Bella and these are my companions" I relented. "Alice and Jasper. Alice has visions and she has seen us as part of your family and therefore we have traveled quite a ways to meet you all."

"That's what I said" I heard Alice mumble behind me.

"I see" Carlisle still looked somewhat unsure. "Well at the very least please come in." He motioned for us to move within the house so that Rosalie could close the door.

We all made our way into a charming living room. I sat on one sofa next to Jasper who set next to Alice and the Cullens sat across from us on the other sofa. We sat there staring at each other for quite awhile before Alice spoke up.

"Where are Edward and Emmett?"

The Cullen's eyes were again filled with shock. But Carlisle answered anyway. "They are out hunting."

"Oh I see." She looked over at us. "I told you we should have come straight here. I bet we wouldn't have missed them if we hadn't stopped."

"Alice you were the one that noticed the store." Jasper told her.

"And if you hadn't insisted that I needed a new shirt then we would have been here earlier." I pointed out.

"I wasn't the one that ruined my outfit while running through the trees." Alice rolled her eyes. "I swear, all our vampire senses and you are still a klutz."

"I resent that." I smiled. "I'm just orientation challenged is all."

I heard someone laugh and looked over to see all the Cullens smiling at us. "You will definitely fit in here." The lady that had to be Esme remarked. "They sound as bad as the three of you."

"Thank you so much Esme" Alice jumped up and ran to her fully intent on giving her a hug but stopped short. "May I?"

Esme stood up and opened her arms to her. Alice's whole tiny face light up as she reached for the elegant woman in front of her. This was home to her.

I looked at Jasper and although he looked happily at Alice I could still see the lines of doubt around his eyes. I felt relieved to know that Jasper was just as unsure as I was. Yes these people, these Cullens, seemed welcoming with the exception of the blonde one but they didn't know us. How much would change if we told them of our history?

Alice walked back over to us and set down next to Jasper. "Is there anything you would like to know?" I beamed at them.

"You mentioned that you had a vision of us?" Carlisle asked.

"Yes" Alice nodded. "I don't remember my human life. The first thing I do remember is waking up in a forest and having a vision of Jasper and then of the family."

"You don't know who created you?" Esme sounded hurt as if somehow she felt Alice's pain. "You were all alone?"

"Again yes" Alice smiled at her. "To both questions. I don't know what I would have done without those first two visions or the following one." She looked to Jasper. "Knowing that there was someone waiting for me helped to give me hope and seeing you and your lifestyle gave me a direction."

"I'm glad" Carlisle responded. "So I am assuming that you three are vegetarians?"

Jasper and I both laughed at the term and looked at Alice. "In all the time we have been together you have never once used that term." I smirked.

"I didn't know it had a name" She retorted. "I just knew we could feed off of animals intend of people."

Carlisle laughed. "Forgive us but we just figure that anyone who leads this lifestyle calls it that."

"It's okay." Alice took over again. "She just likes to poke fun at me." I smiled over at her.

"Is she really your step-mom?" Rosalie asked.

I laughed again. "No but I like to tease her." I told them. "See Jasper here was the one that created me and one day Alice was driving me a little insane by insisting that I go shopping with her. I asked her if I should call her mom since in a way Jasper was like my father." The Cullens all busted out laughing. "She didn't take it that well." I looked at Alice to find she had her arms crossed. "Pouted for three days and I didn't have to go shopping."

"You don't like shopping?" Rosalie stopped laughing to look at me as if my head has suddenly spun around and I was talking from my neck.

"Not really" I shook my head.

She didn't say anything but continued to stare at me in with that same confused look. "I know that you love to shop, Rosalie and I can see that we will have lots of fun making our way through the stores." Alice informed Rosalie. I shuttered at the thought but was secretly glad that Alice would finally have a shopping buddy and could leave me out of it.

"Don't think you're getting off that easily." Alice smiled at me. "With two of us it will be harder to say no."

My eyes widened and I saw Jasper duck his face to keep from laughing out loud.

"You don't speak much do you?" Carlisle directed toward Jasper.

"No sir" Always the southern gentleman Jasper responded. "But with these two why would I need too."

Both Alice and I shoved him in his sides. He doubled over but remained on the sofa. He looked from us both and rolled his eyes but let no other emotions show.

"Well, Edward and Emmett should be back later today." Carlisle stood. "And I have a few things I need to finish up for the hospital. So I'm sure that Esme can show you around and any other questions we might have can wait until we are all together."

"Whatever you say, Carlisle" Alice smiled and I was surprised she didn't call him dad.

"If you will follow me" Esme stood also. "Rosalie would you like to join us?"

"No" She looked at the three of us. The snotty air was back. "I think I'll keep a look out for the boys."

"Fine" Esme turned and lead us through the house or mansion. This had to be the biggest house I had ever seen. Even my home when I was human wasn't this big and we were considered almost wealthy for the time.

They had a fully stocked kitchen which Esme explained was for "keeping up appearances". A dining room which we were told was for "family meetings" and multiple bathrooms and this was only on the first floor. The second consisted of Carlisle's office, Esme's study, an amazing piano room, and Rosalie and Emmett's room. The third floor held Carlisle and Esme's room, Edward's room and a guest room. Finally there was an attic that had a very spacious room but currently it had no furniture and no one lived up there. I was completely amazed. At this point I wasn't even sure mansion did this place justice.

"I'm thinking that we could take Edward's room and Bella you take the guest room." Alice ordered.

"But wouldn't Edward mind sharing his room with the two of you?" I asked the obvious question.

"He wouldn't be sharing silly." Alice laughed at me. "We would move his things out and then he could move into the attic." She shook her head.

This was a new high even for Alice. She couldn't possibly really be thinking of moving someone she didn't really know out of their room without their knowledge; could she? But as I looked at her I found my answer. She could.

"Alice I think that might be a bit too much." I voiced. Esme had returned to her study and we were standing in the attic which I had secretly hoped would be my room if I had a choice. I liked the idea of having a space that seemed somewhat removed from everyone else. They all seemed so coupled up and I really didn't need my lack of a mate thrown in my face at every turn.

"Why?" She asked. "I can see that he won't mind so what's the point in waiting?"

"Can you really Alice?" I looked at her doubtfully. "Or are you just saying that so that it all seems to be okay?"

"How can you doubt my vision after our time together?"

"I don't know" I laced my voice with sarcasm. "Maybe because you can't see me?"

"That has more to do with you than me and you know it Isabella" Alice pouted. "I don't know why you always insist on ruining my fun."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I knew it was only a moment before Jasper jumped in and Alice won. "I do not" I reasoned. "But Alice whether you want to see it or not we don't really know these people and they don't really know us. Don't you think it would be better to not get off on the wrong foot with any of them?"

"Bells has a point Alice" Jasper sided with me.

"Will you two trust me?" Alice raised her arms exasperated. "I know that everything will work out. Now Jazz, help me pack up his things so that we can get situated." And with that she marched off to empty Edward's room.

Jasper just shrugged his shoulders and followed after her. I stayed up in the attic not wanting to be any part of the ousting of Edward's belonging. If Alice couldn't see that she was overstepping herself that was just too bad but I refused to be a part of it. I found a nice spot near the one lone window in this room and looked out across the snow covered mountains. This really was beautiful country. I really didn't see why we weren't allowing them to join the states.

I relaxed my head back against the wall and thought about the past few days. With every step closer I had become more and more worried. Every story that Alice had told us she had seen within her visions had made the Cullens sound wonderful. But a story and reality could be so different. I mean take us for example. There were all these stories of vampires and what we could and couldn't do, different ways to kill us, and no more than one of them true. So with that in mind how could I trust Alice's visions?

Yet the Cullens had seemed like nice people or vampires as the case may be. They had welcomed us into their home with less trepidation then I would have thought and had even laughed with us. But they still had yet to hear our stories and they could change their minds when they learn of Jasper and my past.

The wars of the south were common knowledge and looked down upon by most vampires. Because of that Jasper and I had held so much back every time we had crossed paths with others of our kind. One look at Jasper and you could tell that he had been in a number of fights but most just assumed it was during our travels and we let them. Besides the less we said the less likely anything could make its way back to Maria.

Maria. It had been almost ten years since we left her and still her name hung over us like a mallet. I bet that had been her goal. She probably had forgotten all about us but had known that we would always be worried about her. I laughed. Even as I said that I knew it was a lie. Maria forgot nothing and she threatened nothing that she didn't follow up with. Yes she would come for us one day or at least she would come for me.

I breathed in. I had set here long enough. Alice would have her and Jasper's things moved in by now. I was about to make my way back downstairs when I heard a door slam and a very loud, angry and velvety voice.

"What the hell is all my stuff doing in the garage?"

**AN: It has been a crazy week. It seems like every time you try to focus on one thing a million come at you from all sides. But I got this out here for ya so enjoy. I wish I had more time to write more but I am off to take care of a few things for my family. Talk later.**

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	5. Chapter 4: REVEAL

_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Chapter 4: REVEAL

**Edward POV**

"Smile Edward" Emmett joked. "We're almost home." I just growled lowly at him. "If it makes you feel any better I didn't know she was just going to show up like that." I growled again. "If I had known I never would have told her were we were going. I swear."

I knew I shouldn't take my anger out on Emmett but I couldn't help it. He was the only one here right now and in part if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have had one of the worst nights of my life. He really should learn to keep his mouth shut.

"Maybe she will get the point now." He tried.

"Not likely" I snarled. "Tanya seems to never get the point. I swear I will happy when we move."

"She's really not that bad." Emmett hedged. "And she is smoking hot."

"Is that the only thing that matters to you?" I asked. "That a woman looks good."

"Not exactly but it helps."

"Right I forgot about Rosalie." I snipped. "Beauty incarnate."

"Alright Edward" Emmett hated when I talked down about Rose. "I know you're angry but there is no reason to take it out on Rose or me."

"Really" I quipped. "So you also had a woman you're not remotely interested in try her best to jump you last night and then proceed to tell you that you weren't a man when you turned her down?"

"Ouch" Emmett gave me a pitying look. "I didn't realize she insulted your manhood. That's below the belt; no pun intended."

We ran a while longer before Emmett spoke again. "Maybe you should give it a try." Emmett pushed. "Even without thinking about her looks, I know that when she's not trying to seduce you that you and Tanya get along. And she can carry a conversation and she does seem to be completely in to you."

"For now" I replied. "But how long do you think that would last if I gave in? I'm not interested in being another notch on her bedpost."

"Come on Edward." Emmett stopped. "Man to man, how long are you really going to stay a virgin?"

"What?"

"You think we don't know?" Emmett kept going. "We all know that you've never been with a woman and it's about time that changes. I mean counting your human life you almost fifty. Most men have had sex by now. Like lots of sex."

"Emmett, I am not having this conversation with you." I started running again.

"Fine but think about it." Emmett kept up with me easily. "Aren't you tired of being the only one without a mate?"

I didn't want to admit to him that he was right. I was tired of being the only odd ball out. Of hearing my families thought about each other and seeing the explicit pictures of Rosalie in Emmett's mind. I had thought that I was fine by myself but lately I couldn't explain it. I had felt the pull to find someone that I could spend this extreme existence with. Some one that could understand me and that I could share myself with. Some one that made me feel the same things as my siblings and my parents.

But I couldn't be sure that I deserved those feelings. I had done so much more than any of them ever had. Emmett thought that his slip ups had been bad and Esme still sometimes tortured herself for the one life she took but me I had done so much worse. I had hunted the scum of this world not realizing for years that I was their equal. When I had returned to Carlisle after those five years he had welcomed me back without judgment but with love. That didn't change the fact that I judge myself. That every time I looked in the mirror I could still see that monster looking back. That every time someone passed by me with thoughts that lead to the dark side of humanity I couldn't feel that same monster fighting to be set free.

None of my family understood that. None of them had been in the spot that I had. None of them held the body count that rested solely at my feet. Given that how could I ever hope to find someone that could understand? Some one that would listen and not judge me or see the monster that I was. No for me this was the best that there was. My family would have to be the love of my life that was all there was to it.

As we neared the house I tensed. _What's wrong_, Emmett stopped beside me speaking to me within my mind just in case.

"There are two other vampires at the house." I told him.

_Friend or foe_, Emmett flexed his muscles. He was always ready for a fight.

I closed my eyes and concentrated hard on the thoughts within the house. _Edward if you can hear me you and Emmett need to get back here right away_, Rosalie reached out to me. She sounded like she had been thinking the same thought for hours.

"We need to hurry." I looked over and Emmett was already racing back. We paused by the back entrance preparing for a surprise attack when a familiar scent hit me. I walked over to the garage and noticed all of my things packed haphazardly in boxes and stacked up against my Volvo. What the hell?

_Edward I know you will understand as soon as you give me a chance to explain_, I heard an unfamiliar light voice calling out to me. What was going on? _Don't worry we mean no harm._ The overly chipper voice sounded in my head again. _Please come inside we have been waiting a long time to meet you and Emmett._

I couldn't stop myself. This had to be the last straw to an otherwise awful day. I burst in the house, slamming the door in Emmett's face as I did, and yelled at the top of my lungs, "What the hell is all my stuff doing in the garage?"

I was about to scream again when a pixie like girl came barreling down the stairs and jumped into my arms. I was knocked backwards and would have gone through the wall if it wasn't for Emmett standing behind me. For such a small thing she sure packed some power.

_Oh Edward, I am so happy to finally meet you_; this little thing's thoughts came flooding my mind. _You are going to be my favorite and I'm going to be yours. Don't tell the others though. I would hate to upset Emmett so soon and I'm still not sure Rosalie likes us. But I do see that all that will change as soon as she and I go shopping. But that is besides the point. I am going to love them just as much as you but we, you and I, are going to the closest._

Despite the fact that I had the weekend from hell and now had this crazy vampire hanging me I started laughing. I couldn't imagine anyone not laughing at her. If her thought were any indication she was a spitfire of a person.

"Could you let me go now?" I asked and she pulled herself off of me. _Sorry I sometimes get a little overly excited_; she smiled and turned her attention to Emmett.

"I can't forget you Emmett" She rushed over and hugged him too. I could see Emmett stagger back but after a few minutes he seemed to relax and hugged her back.

"Not that this isn't cool but who are you?" Emmett questioned setting her back on her feet.

"I did it again" She shook her head. "I'm sorry but I'm your new sister Alice." She smiled at us again.

"Okay" Emmett seemed unsure.

"Apparently this little thing gets visions and she saw herself and the others joining our family." Rosalie explained walking over and wrapping her arms around Emmett's waist.

"Cool" Emmett nodded his head. "So you can see the future?"

"Only what people decide" She shrugged and grabbed my hand. "Come and meet Jasper and Bella." She dragged me into the living room where I wasn't surprised to see both Carlisle and Esme already seated. I looked at the sofa on the far wall and saw a scare ridden blonde boy who looked to be somewhere in his late teens or early twenties.

_Don't worry_, Alice's voice came to me again. _That's just Jasper. He's harmless and he's my mate_. I looked back at him. Her mate maybe but harmless was not a word I would use to describe him.

"How do you know that I can hear your thoughts?" I asked looking down at her.

_Because of my vision_ and then I saw what she saw. The five of us headed off to a school I had never seen before. We were smiling and laughing and Alice and I were joking while Jasper had his arm wrapped around her. I had the biggest smile on my face and I seemed so happy. I couldn't remember ever being that happy; not even when I was human. People stared at us as we walked by but we were so involved in each other that we didn't seem to notice. I couldn't believe it and yet there it was right in front of my mind.

"How did you do that?"

"It's simple really" She spoke out loud for the others benefit I assumed. "You can read thoughts so I just thought about the vision that I had. I will admit that it has changed some since the first time I had it. You seem to be happier and more a part of the group in this one than in the first." She shrugged. "I don't know why but I like it better." She smiled again and hugged me once more.

"And this had to do with my things being outside in the garage how?" I questioned.

"Well" She started out guiltily. "Your room had the best view and I saw that you wouldn't be upset about it so Jasper and I moved your things so that we could move in."

_I told her not to do it_, Rosalie let me know. _But that one has a mind of her own and in case you haven't noticed she's quite pushy. Nothing like the other one. She's seems way more normal if you forget that she doesn't like to shop._

I looked around and saw my family plus Alice and Jasper. I didn't see another woman. I looked over at Rose. "What other one?"

_Bella_, five thoughts hit me at once.

"Who's Bella?" I looked around again and still didn't see anyone new.

"Where did she get off too?" Alice looked around and she positively walled, "Bella"

I backed away from her looking astounded. How could someone so small make so much noise?

"Really Alice" I heard the most beautiful voice float down the stairs. "Why in a house full of vampires with exceptional hearing you feel the need to shout is beyond me."

I looked up into the single most spellbinding face I had ever seen. This was no mere woman; this was an angel. She looked hesitantly in my direction and smiled at me and then changed her focus to Emmett and let out the same smile. I wanted to draw her attention back to me but she had already made her way over to Jasper and set down beside him holding his hand. My eyebrows pulled together as I stared at their joined hands. If Alice had said that Jasper was her mate then why was he holding onto Bella's hand?

"Sorry but Edward was asking for you" Alice explained as if it was nothing.

"You were?" She looked quizzically at me.

I wanted to answer but my throat seemed to have chosen that moment to close in on itself. I cleared it a couple of times and then received a solid smack on the back from Emmett that sent me flying across the room and landing soundly right next to the one person I wanted to know.

"I was just wondering who the other person was in Rosalie's thoughts" I smiled at her.

I saw her eyes laugh at me and a wide smile crossed her beautiful full lips. "I see. Well I hope you don't mind but I was against moving your things and I thought I would stay away until the fighting was through."

"There wasn't fighting" I felt my breath rushing out. "If Alice says she saw I would be okay then I guess I'll be okay."

"Just like that?" She raised one eyebrow and looked deep into my eyes. My breath caught in my throat and again I couldn't find my voice so I just nodded. "Interesting" and with that she turned back to Jasper. I wanted desperately to know what she was thinking so I focused my thought to her but couldn't hear anything from her. I noticed that she and Jasper seemed to share a private joke and I found that I really didn't like it. Why did Jasper get both these women? How was that fair? What was the connection? Again I stared right at her but heard nothing.

"So how did the three of you come together?" I asked in frustration. I was looking at Bella but shouldn't have been surprised that it was Alice that answered.

"I had a vision of Jasper as soon as I woke to this life." Alice started. "I don't remember anything of my human life but after that vision I then had another vision of this family. I saw how you feed and fashioned my lifestyle after you. It took a lot of work but was finally able to control myself."

"Why didn't you come straight to us?" Carlisle asked.

"Because I had to wait for Jasper." She smiled at him and the look he gave her was nothing short of worship. "It took almost two years to build up my control and then the rest of the time to find the dinner that I had seen in my vision. But once he came in I knew it was worth it." She looked at him with the same expression and their thoughts were just as consuming.

"Anyway" Alice broke her eyes away from Jasper. "Bella here was a bit of a surprise. Apparently I can't seem to see her."

"What do you mean?" Esme looked over at Bella.

"I have a shield that protects me and those closest to me." She explained. "Any mental powers are basically lost on me."

"Is that why I can't hear you?" I looked into her eyes. Those amazing honey, golden eyes. I could drown in them.

"You can't hear me?" She looked amused. "But I'm sitting right next to you."

"No I mean your thoughts" I stammered.

She laughed lightly. "I know. I was just joking."

I found myself laughing also. It wasn't too often that someone got the best of me and I found that I liked the idea of this wonderful creature being the one to do it.

"How about you Jasper?" Carlisle questioned. "Do you have any special gifts?"

He looked right at me. "I can read other people's emotions" And I knew that he could tell that I was captivated by this angel sitting next to me. "I can also manipulate those emotions."

"Wow" Emmett voiced. "So if you wanted me to be angry then you could just make me angry?"

"Basically" He looked down and I could tell that he wasn't comfortable being here.

"Now that is cool" Emmett chuckled. "Well, I say welcome to the family." He wrapped an arm around Alice who was still standing near him.

_See I told you I would love him just as much as you_, Alice winked at me.

"And where do you propose I put my things Alice?" I looked back at her.

"The attic?" She shrugged and I heard Bella moan softly next to me.

"You don't like the attic?" I asked her.

"No, the attic is find" She smiled at me and I wished again that I could read her mind.

"Are you sure?" I stared into her eyes again hoping I would hear something; anything.

"Give it up" She laughed. "The only way you can hear me is if I lift the shield and I don't know you well enough to do that."

She was magnificent. She had such a sharp wit about her and her beauty was unparalleled. Even Rose didn't hold a candle to her although I was sure that Rose saw it the other way around.

"Since you were against moving my things into the garage would you like to help me move them back into the house?" I willed her to say yes.

"As much fun as that sounds like" She smiled at me. "I have to move my things into the guest room."

"Oh I already did that." Alice added helpfully. I saw Bella glare over at her but she kept her expression light.

"When Alice?" She asked through her teeth.

"While you were hiding in the attic" Alice smiled over at her. So that was it. She had wanted her room to be in the attic. I laughed deep down. If she would have asked I would gladly have switched with her or shared. For some reason I found that I liked the idea of Bella being in my room.

She looked back over at me. "I guess I'm free to help you then" she rose from the sofa and I quickly joined her. We walked towards the back door.

_Edwards got a crush_, Emmett's child-like voice boomed in my head. _Good for you Eddie. Maybe now you can finally get some._

I growled as I passed Emmett and Bella stopped and looked back at me expectantly. I shook my head and she shrugged and continued toward the garage.

If only Emmett knew. I had a feeling this was more than a crush. This could be my future. Bella seemed like everything I had ever wanted and knew I would never have. She had been dropped into my family as if manna from Heaven.

But how could she ever feel the same for me. She looked so innocent and fragile as if none of the world's evils had ever touched her. How could I ever hope that an angel like that could love a monster like me?

**AN: Alrighty, don't forget to check my website if you want to see the sneak peek for next week and I promise to get those reviews answered. Talk to you guys soon.**

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	6. Chapter 5: OPENING

_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Chapter 5: OPENING

**Bella POV**

I paced around the guest room wondering what in the world to do now. It was close to midnight and although we didn't require sleep everyone had broken into groups and headed to their respective bedrooms an hour ago. I didn't want to think about what all they were doing and again I was glad that Jasper's emotions couldn't affect me because the noises were bad enough. I wondered if they would be going at it all night, every night, because that could get annoying really fast and there was only one person to ask.

I made my way up to Edward's new room in the attic. It hadn't taken long to move his things up there and that was with us going almost human speed. For some reason he seemed to have been dragging his feet. Maybe he didn't want to be in the attic. If that was the case I would gladly trade my small guest room for his. Not that it was really small. In fact you could probably fit half our Philly apartment in it but it still wasn't as big as the attic, or as private.

I hesitated outside the door wondering if he was busy. I lowered my shield and reached out to him. _Edward are you busy?_ I waited hoping that his answer would be no.

"Bella?" He sounded so confused. I poked my head in and sure enough he was staring at the door with a puzzled look on his face. "How did I hear you?"

"I lowered my shield" I explained.

"Oh" He smiled shyly at me and then just stared. I didn't know what to do. Aside from Jasper the only other men I had ever really been close to where my brothers and they were my brothers so I didn't need to feel nervous around them.

We stood there for quite awhile, me by the door and him by the window, before I remembered that I had come searching for him for a reason. "I had a question and I was hoping you could answer it."

That seemed to snap him out of whatever trance he had been in. He moved swiftly and motioned for me to sit on the black sofa that lined the side of the room. "Of course. Please come in."

"Thanks" I seated myself and looked over to him. He had moved from the windows but he still looked so stiff standing next to the other wall across the room. "Did you want to sit also?" I patted the space on the sofa next to me.

"Um" I almost wanted to laugh he looked so nervous. How was that possible? Only a fool could miss how gorgeous he was and he had mentioned that he was turned twenty-five years ago. Given that I was sure that there were loads of women, vampire and human alike, that were after him. But there he was looking like I might set him on fire any minute.

"I won't bite" I smiled hoping that he would relax. We were the only un-coupled people in this house and I was hoping that we could possibly be friends. I mean this was unfamiliar to me too and the last thing I needed was his nerves rubbing off on me.

He laughed musically and made his way over to the sofa. He sat down and still looked as formal as when he was standing. When had he been born again? It had been close to the turn of the century but still you would think he had never been around a girl before.

"Sorry" Edward mumbled. "I'm a little nervous."

"Why?"

"I…that is not a lot….well I don't normally…" He stammered. "What was your question?" He finally gave up explaining and asked. Boy what I wouldn't have given right then to trade powers with him and be able to hear what he had been thinking.

I started to push for an answer to my question but decided to let him off the hook. If things kept going every night like tonight there would be plenty of time to get to the bottom of his nervousness.

"I was wondering about your family." I started.

He became defensive and looked down at me all traces of nervousness gone. "What about them?"

"No need to get upset" I backed away a bit. Maria would have loved him I thought. He looked so formidable; almost as much as Jasper in a battle. "I was just wondering about the noises."

"The noises?" He relaxed some and went back to his stiff posture next to me.

I closed my eyes and listened hard. "You can't hear them up here" I told him sulking. "Great another reason I would have liked…" I cut myself off not wanting him to know that I had coveted his room.

"The attic?" He finished for me smiling.

"Yes" I narrowed my eyes. "You sure you're not reading my mind?"

"I'm sure but your disappointment was showing earlier when Alice mentioned the attic and then again when she said she had placed your things in the guest room." He laughed to himself.

"Oh" I looked down. Great he couldn't read my mind but apparently my face and emotions were up for grabs.

"Why didn't you say something?" He asked quietly.

I shrugged. "I'm new" I looked up. "The last thing I want is to cause a fuss."

"It wouldn't have been a fuss." He was smiling at me and had seemed to relax some. "I needed to move my things anyway and we probably could have had your belongings packed up in no time."

"But Alice had gone through so much trouble" I went on. I knew how Jasper felt about Alice seeing as how we had been together for three years now. I also knew that he still wanted me around for some reason, maybe obligation, but if this move didn't work out I was leaving. I couldn't take any more of being the third wheel on a two wheel carriage. "Besides it's not that big of a deal."

"Are you sure?" He looked into my eyes and I felt my throat close. Formidable indeed. I nodded yes not trusting my voice. "It really would be nothing for us to switch."

"Why would you do that?" I croaked out.

"Because it would make you happy" He breathed.

Again my voice lodged in my throat. I looked at him, really looked at him. He was so much more than handsome. He was nice. Maybe this move wouldn't be so bad after all and I wouldn't have to leave.

I cleared my throat and looked away breaking whatever spell his eyes had me under. "That's sweet but I'll be alright." Then I remembered my point in coming up here. "That is if your family and mine can keep the noises down."

"Again I have to ask what noises?" This time he had a crooked smile on his face and I thought I would faint. I had never been so glad to be sitting in my life, either of them. Nor had I ever felt this way in the presence of a man. Not even my own Clement had made my throat close or my heart stutter and we were to be married. The closest he had come to provoking any type of emotion from me was disgust.

I shook my head hoping to clear it and looked back at him. That was a mistake because I was right back to the same feelings. "Bella are you alright?" He asked looking concerned.

"Fine" I managed to say. "Just it's a little embarrassing having you push me to say what they are doing is all." I put the blame back on him trying to find my footing again.

"Sorry" The smile was gone replaced by a look of sadness. Well I hadn't wanted that.

"Just kidding Edward" I tried to joke. "You really need to loosen up."

He smiled that crooked smile back at me and looked like he was pondering his next words carefully. Suddenly he had a sly look in his eyes and tapped his head. "If you think the noises are bad you should try being able to hear their thoughts."

I coughed loudly. I hadn't thought about that. Maybe he needed the attic worst than I did. "You can hear what they are thinking?"

"All the time."

"Even now?"

"Yup"

"Can't you stop it?"

"I wish"

"Wow" I really felt bad for him. That seemed so wrong somehow. "How long have you been with the family?"

"Since Carlisle changed me in 1918 but back then it was just the two of us." He explained. "Esme came about three years later and then Rose. Esme and Carlisle I could handle because they were older and felt the need to be discreet. They always seemed to shall we say be alone further away from the house. But then Rose brought home Emmett and the two of them…." He trailed off shaking his head. "They got so bad at one point that Carlisle and Esme found them their own home."

"Really" my eyes bugged out.

"Yep" He laughed. "A lot of good it did. They tore through it in less than two months."

"Tore through it? How?"

"You don't want to know." He looked at me and I knew exactly what he meant and shuttered. "So far they have gone through five houses alone, two cars, and they put a huge hole in the living room downstairs a few years ago before Esme put her foot down and said that that was enough."

"What happened?" I raised my knees up so that my chin could rest on them totally engrossed in the story.

"She threatened to separate them for a year" He seemed to be getting into sharing the story too. "She told them that she would take Rosalie to France and not come back until they had learned some self control."

"Would she really have done that?"

He shook his head. "I doubt it. Esme is such a mother deep down inside she wouldn't have been able to be away from us for that long. Plus she would have missed Carlisle too much."

"Still" I thought about it. "It might have been nice for you to have a break."

"Yeah but could you imagine the damage they would have done when Esme brought her back?" He laughed again. "The incident in the living room happened after Emmett, Carlisle and I took an extended hunting trip. We were only gone four days. Think what they would have done after three hundred and sixty-five."

I didn't want to because that was a scary thought. "Man" I huffed. "I thought living with Maria had been torture."

"Who's Maria?"

Damn. I didn't know how Jasper felt about it but I certainly wasn't ready to talk about that witch that had ruled the beginning parts of my life. How had I let that slip?

"No one important." I joked it off wanting him to let it go. "I should let you get back to what you were doing." I stood preparing to leave.

"You don't have to go" He reached out and grabbed my hand. A shock ran through me as if I had put my finger in an electrical outlet. "I really wasn't doing anything important before you came in. Besides if you go back down then you'll just hear them again."

"They're still at it?" I sat back down.

He shook his head. "They probably will be at it all night; especially…."

"Rosalie and Emmett" I finished for him.

"Yeah" He scrunched his nose up. "Also I get the feeling that having Jasper here isn't helping."

"What do you mean?"

"Well remember when he said he could manipulate emotions?"

"Of course" How could I forget that? I had only been with him for the last hundred or so years.

"It seems as if he is sending out a whole lot of romantic feelings." He looked at me and I couldn't move. "And if everyone else is feeling half of what I am then they aren't about to stop."

"You can feel them too?" I was shocked.

"I can now" He looked positively miserable. "I couldn't before but like I said, Jasper isn't helping."

I took pity on him and extended my shield so that he was covered. His eyes widened and he swallowed hard. "What happened?"

_I extended my shield_, I told him. _It didn't seem fair that you were stuck not only hearing their private thoughts but feeling them too._

"You're doing this?" He questioned. "I can't hear them at all."

_Yeah_, I smiled at the joy plastered on his face. _One of the perks of my special powers._

"You really are an angel" He mumbled and I got the feeling that I wasn't supposed to hear him but it made me smile none the less. "If your shield is still up then why can I hear you now?"

_It's like a bubble_, I explained. _Nothing can get in but inside is still the same._

"I'm not sure I get it."

_Okay_, I wondered how to get him to understand. _Think of it like a rubber band. If I have a rubber band around my finger then you can't touch the part that it is covering._ He shook his head to let me know he was following. _But if I were to put the rubber band over my finger and yours at the same time then you would be able to touch my finger. Got it?_

"I think so" He smiled that crooked smile again. "So if your shield included Jasper right now then I would still be able to feel what he was feeling and read his thought but since it doesn't then I can't."

_Basically_, I smiled too.

"That is really cool" He looked just like a little boy on Christmas. "How far away can you do this or do you have to be right next to the person?"

_I can cover this whole house and everyone in it_ I told him. _I've never really tried to see how far away from someone I can be to cover them but I know that I can cover people for at least a mile._

"That is amazing" He looked so awestruck as if I was some sort of magician. All that thought did was made me sad. I didn't dare think about the why behind that considering that he could read my mind now but it didn't matter. "What's wrong?"

"My thought or my face?" I asked out loud.

"Both" He moved closer to me. "You seemed so sad all of a sudden."

"Not sad so much" I forced a smile to my face and thoughts. "Just I don't like thinking about the past."

"Would you like to talk about it?" He really was sweet.

"No" I shook my head. "At least not now." I laughed. Besides I was enjoying your contentment at not listening to your family to much to talk about anything boring.

He laughed too. "I will admit it is nice to have a private moment alone in my head and they are your family now too."

I blew off his last statement. "Have you really heard voices all your vampire life?" I couldn't comprehend it. I knew Jasper had struggled so much in the beginning trying to control his emotions and not affect those around him. It had been so hard.

"Yes it was" He replied. I looked at him with questions in my eyes. "Learning to control myself. I'm sorry but I heard your thoughts about Jasper and it made me remember how hard it was to find a balance of what were my thoughts and what were others. At first everything just flooded my mind continuously but then I learned to somewhat tune out some and how to focus on those that were directed at me."

_That's amazing_, I told him truthfully. _I don't think that I could have done it._

"That's not true" I reminded me. "You learned to control your shield. That had to be hard at first."

_Not really_, I answered. _At first I didn't know that I had it. Jasper would always look at me funny and it took months for him to tell me it was because he got nothing from me. Then we would be around others and they would start fighting and I would get so scared that I would attach myself to Jasper and he wouldn't be able to feel anything. It took almost a year to realize that I was doing it._ I explained. _Anyway, it wasn't like I had a choice._

"What do you mean?" Again that look of concern flashed across his face along with something else. Something I could describe.

_That is a story for another day_, I smiled.

"Are you sure?" He pushed. "It might help to talk about it."

If only he knew. I shook my head and stood this time determined to head back to my room. "You're leaving?" He asked looking crestfallen.

"Yeah and unfortunately I'm taking my shield with me." I jokingly added.

"You don't have too." He hedged.

"Leave or take the shield?" I smirked.

"Leave" He reached for my hand again. "I won't push. If you're not ready to talk then I'll wait." That boyish look entered his eyes again. "It's just nice to not be alone."

He looked so vulnerable that I couldn't have left even if Maria herself was in this room. What was going on here and what was this hold that he seemed to have over me? I was thankful that I had pulled my shield back when I had stood. The last thing I needed was for him to know that he affected me this way or any way. But one look in those topaz eyes and it was like he had me wrapped up in some sort of cocoon with no chance of escape. I sat back down and looked over into his smiling face. "Thank you" was all he said.

"You're welcome" I leaned my head on his shoulder and felt a sense of peace that I hadn't felt in any life I had lead. "Your right."

"About what?" I felt his arm wrap around my shoulder and I snuggled into him some more.

_It is nice not to be alone_; I thought while blanketing him again with my shield.

**AN: Hey everyone, this is going to be a short author's note because your author is feeling slightly under the weather. Too many rainy days followed by high temps and no coat is finally getting to me. So leave a review to make me feel better and I'll see ya next chapter.**

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	7. Chapter 6: WANTS

_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Chapter 6: WANTS

**Jasper POV**

"Come on Bella" Alice whined right in front of me.

"For the last time no Alice" Bella huffed and stormed out of the room that Alice and I shared.

"I swear Bella, you never want to let me have any fun" Alice pouted and followed her out.

I laid back on the bed laughing to myself. I may not be able to feel Bella's emotions but if her face was any indication Alice better back off soon. Who would have thought two women could get so upset over something as silly as a make-over? I laughed again wondering who could have known that I could be this happy.

A hundred years and I had never felt the peace that Alice brought to my life. The shear hope that filled me day after day. It was amazing to think that a tiny slip of a girl had changed me so completely in such a small amount of time. How I wish that I had woken to this life with her by my side instead of the demon that dominated my existence. Even now in the mist of all this joy there was doubt. Would Maria find us? What would happen if she did? How could I protect Bella? What would the Cullens say? Would I lose Alice? All these questions threaten my mind everyday but I couldn't think about them or come up with a strategy because I now lived with a mind reader and a psychic. What I wouldn't give for a small portion of Bella's shield right now.

Not that the Cullens were bad and Alice permeated every ounce of me but I did miss the days when it was just Bella and I traveling around. We would pretend to be father and daughter or brother and sister but that never lasted long considering we look nothing alike what with her dark hair and my blonde roots. The only think that came close to tying us together was our southern accents and those had started to fade years ago especially with us staying to the north.

We both missed the south but it was too close for comfort as they say. You never knew who could be around the corner. Plus there was still fighting between the vampire clans if you went too far south and the last thing either of us wanted was to be pulled into another war and live under another dictator like Maria. I stood pacing around the room. I needed to get out of here. I needed to think and figure out a way to protect my family, all of my family, just in case.

I found Bella easily. "Hey Kitten" I knew she was anxious to get away from Alice. "Want to go hunting?"

She smiled up at me. "Oh God yes" The relief in her voice almost had me laughing again.

"She isn't that bad" I defended Alice who was no were to be seen. "Just let her have a little fun."

"If you start in on how Alice's makeover would be a great bonding experience for us I will have to rip you apart and scatter the pieces." She threatened. "You only get to use that once everyone one hundred years and you've used it already."

I laughed as we headed outside remembering that first month in Michigan. That was as far as we had gotten before we needed to stop so that Bella or I didn't kill anyone. Alice had been so bored locked up with the two of us. She didn't want to leave us to go into town but the abandoned field house that we had found didn't offer much to do. She had followed Bella around for two weeks begging for her to let her do something with her hair and makeup. I knew Bella well enough to know that she was about to blow so I had pulled her aside and used that line hoping that she would cave. Sure enough it worked but after five hours in a chair while Alice did Lord only knows what to Bella's physical features she snapped.

Bella promptly pulled me away and told me that if I ever talk her into another makeover she would not only leave but run back to Maria. She claimed that no torture Maria could come up with would be worse than what she had just been through and if she had to sit through it again she would rather be dead. After yelling the last part at the top of her lungs she announced that she was going hunting and advised neither of us to follow. Then she stormed from the house leaving a gasping Alice behind with shattered feelings.

"You know she only does this because she loves you" I told her coming back to the present. "She wants the two of you to be close and she is trying to make up for last time."

"Can't we be close doing something else?" She questioned. "Something sane like mountain climbing or furniture throwing."

I stopped and looked at her. "Since when do you throw furniture?"

"Since Alice started pushing me to let her do another makeover" She crossed her arms. "Or at least I will if she doesn't stop. And just so you know, I'm starting in your room."

"Thanks" I said as a dry laugh escaped my mouth. We continued to walk further into the forest. "You know you could give her a shot."

This time she was the one to stop and look at me. "What do you think I've been doing for the last three years?" She turned on me. "I have put up with her screaming though it isn't necessary; her preposterous need to shop at every stop we make, her ridiculous attempts to use me as a Barbie doll that she can dress and makeup to her heart's content, and I have only shown my anger towards her that one time. And you think that I haven't been giving her a shot?"

"I didn't mean it like that" I backtracked. "I know that Alice can be a little overwhelming" She raised her eyebrows at that statement. "Okay a lot overwhelming but it really does come from a place of love. I can feel it and I also feel how much it hurts her every time you push her away."

Bella huffed and began walking again. She was looking around but I knew that she was thinking about what I said. "Maybe I could be a little more open to the shopping" I smiled. Bella was such a good person. "If" Her voice rose. "She backs off about the marathon makeup and hair sessions."

"I think that could be possible" I smiled again knowing that I could talk Alice into that; at least for a while. But maybe by then she would have worn Bella down and she would just give in. "Thank you."

"And" She interrupted my thoughts. "You better tell her that if she doesn't then I will chop off all my hair and spend the rest of eternity bald." And with that she ran ahead of me. I grimaced. Maybe she wouldn't back down after all, I thought as I took off after her.

As I ran to catch up I let my body relax. This was exactly what I needed. No two crazy female vampires yelling back and forth. Nobody listening to my thoughts. No thoughts to be had. Just the wind wiping across my face and the smell of the forest in my nose. I ran further not even looking for Bella and smelt what had to be big game. I turned and made my way towards it pouncing before I could get my bearings. I looked down at the now dead carcass realizing that I had taken down a bear and I didn't feel in the slightest full.

I rolled off the body disgusted. You would think that after three years I would be use to this way of live. Granted I didn't have the guilt and pain that use to be present after I took a live but I seemed to never get full off these animals and I still struggled the most with maintaining it. Even Bella had taken to this like a fish to water. In three years she hadn't slipped once. There was that one time she had smelled some human running and took off after him but by the time Alice caught up to her she had used her shield to block out the bloodlust and stopped herself from killing him.

It was embarrassing really. I knew Alice didn't think any less of me but I thought less of myself. Could I really do this for eternity? Always deny what I craved, what my body was use to. After almost a hundred years of instant gratification could I handle living on less than. I heard musical laughter in the background of my thoughts and my mind automatically conjured up images of Alice. Her smile, her beauty, her love. Yes, my mind and heart shouted. For Alice I could do anything. I stood to my feet and headed off to find Bella so we could run home.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**Edward POV**

What in the world was Esme thinking? Why would she invite that crazy seductress into our house? Didn't she know that she would be able to see how I felt towards Bella and make our night miserable? Could she not see the handwriting on the wall?

I had never been this nervous in my whole life. Tanya and Bella in the same house, my house, together. This could not end well. Either Tanya would sense how I felt about Bella and proceed to try to torture her or worse Bella would see how Tanya acts around me and assume that there was something going on between us. Nothing could be further from the truth. The only thing going on between Tanya and I would be the fake relationship that she had built up in her head and after the weekend a couple of weeks ago I wasn't sure that I wanted to continue our friendship either.

I still shuttered remembering Tanya pulling me aside as if we were going hunting and throwing me down, climbing on top of me and ripping my shirt open. She had kissed almost my whole chest before I was able to get her off me. I had tried to be gentlemanly before and let her down easy but that night I had reached a boiling point. I knew that I hadn't said the nicest things but there was no reason for her response. To insinuate that I wasn't a man just because I happen to be one of the few that could resist her powers of male manipulation wasn't fair. She could have any man she wanted so I still couldn't understand why she would want me.

I moved around my room listening absently to the thoughts of my family. Esme was anxiously awaiting Carlisle's return from the hospital, Rosalie was actually excited that the Denali's were coming which surprised me, Emmett was aggressively playing a video game, Jasper and Bella seemed to have left at some point and Alice was pouting because Bella wouldn't let her play dress up. I laughed at that last thought. Bella was perfect and I didn't understand Alice's silly desire to change anything about her.

I smiled thinking of Bella. We had spent almost every night in this room talking and sharing our past. Well my past at least. No matter what I did I couldn't get her to talk about her life before meeting Alice. She would talk about the last three years and sometimes a little about her time with Jasper right before but never about the years prior. I knew that she was almost as old as Jasper which boggled my mind. Jasper had lived almost a century of vampire life and that would mean so had Bella. It was strange to think that when I was human she was already a vampire and had been for quite some time. If she had been in Chicago when the Spanish flu hit then she could have turned me instead of Carlisle. It was a weird thought but not a bad one.

The idea of having spent the last twenty-five years with Bella at my side put a smile on my face. To have woken up to that angel face looking back at me would have made the transition so much easier. I had never been in love as a human. I hadn't even thought to love someone other than my family and the same had been true during my vampire existence. But with Bella here I could see how that would have changed if she had been there in the beginning; I could see how it was changing with her here now.

I had thought that I was complete. That there was nothing out there for me other than the love of my family and the friendships I had developed with the Denalis. Yet since meeting Bella I have begun to wonder. Is it possible that I could find what my sibling had? Could I actually be with someone that is just for me? That loves me differently than my family? Someone who loves me as a woman loves a man. Could I feel the same soul deep, life changing love that my family had felt when I clearly didn't have a soul to give? I wasn't sure but every night when Bella climbed those stairs and that beautiful voice rang in my ears a little piece of me believed there was a chance.

_Edward are you busy_, right words but wrong voice.

"No Alice" I walked over to the door and opened it up. "Come in."

_Thank you_, she thought. _I need to talk to you about Bella_

I began to worry. Had Alice seen something about tonight? Was I right to be trepidations about Tanya being in the same house as Bella? I knew that normally Alice couldn't see Bella but maybe she saw Tanya attack a blank space or something and just naturally assumed it was Bella.

"What Alice" My nerves transferred into my voice. "What did you see about Bella?"

_Nothing of course_, she laughed. _I never see Bella but that doesn't change the fact that she is in trouble._

"What kind of trouble Alice?" Her statements weren't helping my anxiety.

_Well to start off, I hate coming to you like this_, she hesitated. _And normally I would go to my Jasper seeing as how he has known her longer but after three years in the middle I just don't find it fair to burden him with this._

"What Alice?" Would she ever get to the point of what was after Bella?

_It's really quite silly but_, she paused as if not wanting to let me know.

"What?"

Alice bit her lip and my dead heart dropped. This had to be bad. It had to be worse than Tanya and her jealous fits of rage or Bella having a slip and taking a life. Maybe it was something from her past. I cursed myself for not pushing her harder to talk about it. At least if I knew what she was hiding I could protect her from it but now I would be fighting blind. Not that I wouldn't do it. No, if something was coming after Bella it would have to come through me first.

I grabbed Alice by the arms and shook her lightly. "For crying out loud Alice, what is wrong with Bella?"

_It's her fashion sense_, Alice sounded so distraught.

I stood there not blinking, not moving a muscle. I didn't know whether to laugh or shake Alice again but harder this time. How could she have done that? I thought something deadly was coming after Bella and she was only talking about clothes. Did she not realize what she had put me through?

_I saw that and it wasn't very nice_, she scolded. _Shaking me that hard, really Edward, that is not very gentlemanly of you_; she explained at my quizzical expression. This time I did laugh. I hadn't really thought that was a choice but apparently it had been if Alice had seen it.

I dropped my hands. "Sorry Alice but you really scared me."

_Well it is a scary situation_; she continued obviously over my sudden thought of violence. _Have you seen her wardrobe or lack thereof? And I don't even want to mention her hair._

"I think it's fine Alice" I sat down on the sofa in my room.

_That's just it_, she clapped her hands together. _I know that its fine but it could be amazing if she would just let me work on it._

Truthfully I thought it was already pretty amazing but I wasn't ready to tell her that. I wasn't ready to tell any of my family that. Especially since I didn't know what I was feeling. The last think I needed was Alice walking around matchmaking with Bella and I when there could be nothing there. Yet as I said it I knew I was lying. There was something there alright but until I was sure about what it was I would hold off on any emotional conversations; especially with my family.

_Edward I'm not asking for much and I know that you and Bella have developed a friendship of sorts_, she kept going proving to me that if I said anything she would have her little pixie nose right in the middle of it. _I was simply hoping that you could drop a few hints that suggested that she let me spruce up her look a little._

"You sound as if you want me to tell her that she looks bad?" I stared at her. She was completely crazy if she thought I would do that.

Alice's laughter filled the house. _Of course not silly. Just mention that it might be fun to try a new look_, she shrugged. _Maybe ask if she ever thought about dying her hair red_.

"Red?" I coughed out. Why would any woman want red hair?

_Fine maybe not red but just a change_, she wouldn't let up. _Trust me. The Denali's are coming tonight and I want us to make a good impression. I want Bella to look her best. Is that so wrong?_

I knew she meant well and I suppose that is what made me shake my head in agreement.

_Thank you so much Edward_, Alice jumped up and down and ran over and hugged me before bounding out of my room. _Talk later_. I heard her on the stairs. _I have so much to do. Pick out my dress and Bella's, figure out which makeup would look best on her, find the best shoes. Oh and Edward, Bella and Jasper will be back in exactly six minutes._

I chuckled to myself. One thing was for sure. Living with Alice was never going to be dull. I pulled myself up and made my way downstairs. I still had five and a half minutes to spare so I sat down and played again Emmett to kill the time. Sure enough as soon as we were done with round one Jasper and Bella came running through the back door. I looked up prepared to say something but when I caught sight of Bella I couldn't. She had just come back from a run of some kind and still looked like a goddess. How could Alice think that she could improve on that?

"Hey Bella, you want to play?" I couldn't send her away to be poked and prodded by Alice in a feeble attempt to improve upon perfection.

"Maybe later" She smiled over at me. "Right now all I want is a shower." And she ran toward the stairs.

Just the thought of her in the shower made my body need one too but mine would have to be cold. I looked up and caught Jasper looking at me wide eyes. Damn, I forgot that he could read my emotions. I was about to explain and apologize when I heard Alice's booming voice loud and clear in my head.

_Thanks for nothing Edward_, her thoughts sounded so huffy. Honestly how could something so small be so loud even in her thoughts? _I mean really. All I ask is one simple favor and you can't do that for your favorite sister. I can't believe it. Well don't blame me if she looks frumpy and downtrodden all evening._

I sighed. This was going to be a long night.

**AN: Back again and still feeling bad which sucks cause I really have too much to do to be sick. Alright I will see you guys next week and be sure to drop by the website to check out the new updates. Also I am thinking of adding a favorite quotes page and I would like to know what are some of your favs from my other stories and this one?**

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	8. Chapter 7: BEGINNING

_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Chapter 7: BEGINNING

**Bella POV**

I had caved. Everyone knew I would. Jasper, the Cullens, even me. I stood in front of the full length mirror in my room just staring at the figure that was looking back at me. The only thing familiar was the eyes and those were surrounded by so many colors and darkest that you could barely see them. Three hours. Three hours of my life gone and for what? So a tiny pixie could feel better about herself, so that one person in this house that was really family could be happy, so that I could impress some people that I didn't know and wasn't really looking forward to meeting. I had caved and this was the end result.

My hair was pulled so tight I was glad that vampires couldn't get headaches and there were so many pins and circles that you could write a novel ten times over. Alice had put me in a lacy overture of a dress with heels of all things and red lips. What had she been thinking? A vampire with red lips; that is just so cliché. I looked like some over done pin up model or something far worse. I swear if she ever comes at me again with a makeup brush or a comb I am going to stab her with it.

It wasn't that I didn't love Alice; I did. She had changed Jasper's live so much and in turn mine. He was happy now and he smiled and he opened up to me in a way that he hadn't in all the years I had known him. The best part was that I didn't see the guilt in his eyes every time he looked at me like before and for that she would always have a place in my heart.

But in my wardrobe was a different story. I just didn't understand her need to dress me up every chance she got. During our three years together there had been so many times that I walked into my closet and found that half the clothes were missing only to be replaced with things that I would never wear. For goodness sake she bought me a formal length dress while we were camped out in Minnesota after Jasper attacked that hiker. Where did she think I was going to go in that? I just wished that she would calm down and let me be me.

I looked at the reflection once more and gave up on being me for tonight. I had to admit that I was somewhat nervous about meeting the Denali coven. I knew that they were animal drinkers same as the Cullens and there were five of them, four women and one man, but that was it. To think about it there seemed something off about that. One man and all those women, where they a coven or a harem? And on top of that did they have any special powers. Something that I would spend all night repelling and have to explain again how my shield worked. That sounded like a lovely evening.

There was also the fact that Edward seemed so anxious. I don't think I had ever seen him so on edge and that is including the first night I basically barged my way into his room. That made me not want to meet them even more. If Edward knew these people and it was bothering him that they were coming over that did not bode well. But I had asked Alice during her soul stealing makeup session if she saw anything going wrong tonight and she said no. However, she also couldn't see me so who knows. Maybe I might be the fly in the ointment.

I made my way downstairs and found that I was the only one around. I listened carefully but couldn't hear anyone. This did not make me feel any better about tonight; not in the slightest. I wondered the first floor poking my head into room after room. When I reached what I had learned a few days ago was the piano room I stopped. Someone was in there playing. It was extremely faint seeing that I had to strain to hear it and that was with my extra vamp senses. I raised my hand to knock but the person inside spoke before I could.

"Come in Bella" The velvet voice floated through the door. I turned the knob and looked inside to see Edward hunched over the keys.

"Edward" I couldn't hide the surprise lacing my voice. I made my way to stand behind him. "How did you know it was me?"

"I heard the footsteps but no thoughts."

"Oh" I didn't know what else to say. "I didn't know you played." Why hadn't he mentioned it in any of the time we spent together?

"Yes" He said not turning to look at me. "I haven't lately but for some reason I can't get this melody out of my head."

"Do you mind" I pointed to the spot on the bench next to him.

"Not at all" He moved over to make room for me. I sat down but he never looked at me. His eyes were closed almost as if he was in pain. I wanted to help but the only thing I knew about music was that I didn't have a musical bone in my body.

"Maybe if you play what you have so far then the rest will come" I tried hoping that was good advice. He nodded and began to move his hands across the keys. The most beautiful, expression filled music filled the room. I couldn't move my eyes from his hands as they swept repeatedly over the ivory that seemed to be conveying all his thought into sound. It was poetic and impactful. I felt my eyes mist and knew that if I was still human I would be crying at the unfulfilled desire that this music seemed to bring.

Much too quickly it was gone. I turned to him, noticing that he still had his eyes closed, and leaned my head on his shoulder. "Thank you"

"For what?"

"For sharing that with me" I looked up and this time his eyes were on me. They were more than on me they were barreling into my heart, into my soul. I reached up and hesitantly touched his check feeling the shock that always seemed to accompany our touching. The pain that had lined his face before came back stronger. It was as if something was piercing him.

"Bella" My name had never sounded as good as when it fell from his lips. His full, soft lips that where inching toward me. I knew before they found mine that this would be a defining moment. Something to separate my past from my future.

Slowly his mouth closed on mine and electricity was poured into my body. I lost control of myself and pressed scandalously close to him. My hands found their way into his hair and held him close to me as his arms wrapped around by waist pulling me almost onto his lap. Was this passion? If it was it was new to me. No wonder the rest of the family locked themselves away night after night. If you could experience this type of current why would you ever what to stop?

And that was just was I never wanted, to stop. This was nothing like the few times I had allowed Clement to kiss me. Those had been chaste. His lips not really touching mine. Which had been fine with me considering that just the sight of him repulsed me but this was amazingly different. With Edward I could feel myself being draw into him. It was like he was possessing me from head to toe and I was reveling in it.

Unfortunately, Edward must not have been feeling as I was because he pulled away from me and quickly darted across the room. "I'm sorry" He was shaking his head. "I shouldn't have done that."

He could have ripped off my arm and burned it and it would have hurt less. Here I was ready to drown in the emotions he was stirring and he felt sorry for leading me on. "No problem" I smiled. "But you do have lipstick on now just so you know."

He raised his hand to wipe it away and looked over at me. Again his eyes were looking deep inside me and whatever he saw he must not have liked because before I could draw breath he was next to me again and I was in his arms.

"I'm sorry again" He whispered into my ear while letting his hand rub against my hair. "I'm afraid that wasn't well done of me."

I pulled back. "What do you mean?" It was a stupid question but one I asked anyway. I didn't want to get my heart broke but I had a feeling that was exactly where I was headed.

"I mean that maybe I shouldn't have apologized the first time." That crooked smile that I was coming to love was making its way across his face. "It's just in my day men didn't take such liberties with a lady without offering some form of repentance and I assumed it was the same for you."

"I see" I smiled internally. He thought he was being a gentleman. Again this was a switch from that idiot of a fiancé that I had been betrothed to. He always thought that since contracts had been signed at my birth we should be allowed to do whatever and he made no apologizes for it.

"Truthfully I'm not the least bit sorry." He placed his hands so that they were cupping my face. "I have wanted to do that since the first day you arrived."

My dead heart leapt. "Why did you wait so long?" I wasn't sure how I would have reacted but having tasted the forbidden I couldn't imagine turning him away.

"I didn't want to scare you off" He looked down swiftly. "In case you haven't figured it out I don't have that much experience with women and there are things in my past that might change the way you see me. They might lead you to think less of me."

I started to laugh out loud but stopped myself. He thought that his past could scare me. I had spend the better part of a hundred years fighting and killing all types of beings and he had done what in his twenty something years as a vampire that could top that. Had a slip up or two? Taken a life that had been close to him? There was nothing that could top my history even if he had been changed along with Carlisle. Still it was there in the way his head hung that he really thought if I knew the truth about him I would turn him away. He had it turned the wrong way.

"Edward" I raised his head so that we were again looking eye to eye. "There is nothing in your past that could be any worse than the things that line mine."

"You can't know that" He dropped his hands and stood from where he had been kneeling.

"Yes I can"

"But you say that as if I have shared everything about myself with you" There was accusation in his voice. "Or as if you have shared everything with me."

"We don't have to share everything for me to know the truth." I stood also. "I know my past and I know there is nothing you could have done worse than the things I have."

"Really" His eyes narrowed. "Did you spend years hunting down the worst possible minds of society to feed upon not realizing that you were becoming just as they were? Did you turn your back on everything you had been taught by the kindest of souls and become the monster that you thought you were born to be? Did you take lives all while knowing there was another way for us to survive? Because I did and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't live with the shame of my decisions. That I don't see that monster staring back at me."

I smiled. Is that what he was worried about? That I wouldn't accept him if I knew that he hadn't always lived this life. If he only knew the people that I had hunted. The blood count that ran like a river at my feet. The lives that were lost because I had been trained to hunt the weak and change the strong. The destruction that I had been party too in this world. His wrongs could never measure mine even if he had only returned to the Cullens the day before we showed up.

"Edward, what you or I have done in our past is just that, past." I told him. "There are always things that you wish you could change or choices you regret but what's done is done. It's what we do from this point on that makes a difference. Right now is all we have."

"And you can live like that?" He looked shocked. "You can forget all that we have done wrong in the past. Live as though our slates are clean?"

I thought of the sword that constantly hung over my head. "I have to" I whispered. I couldn't tell him that today was all I might have. That any minute Maria could show up and pull me from my future. That I could find myself trapped in the same hell that had been my beginning to this life. He wouldn't understand.

He had been changed in love. I saw how Carlisle and Esme looked at Edward, Rosalie and Emmett. They wore a look that I had noticed in my own parents eyes on occasion. This was a real family not the mayhem and backbiting that I had been changed into. He had never had to fight for his kill or simply to stay alive. He hadn't had to prove his worth and lived knowing that there was an expiration date attached to him. He hadn't spent years wondering if there was a chance that someone could see him and find worth in him. Not what he could do but in who he was. I had always known Jasper loved me but that had been tainted by guilt for so many years that there were times I doubted him. He couldn't understand the fear that had subjugated my existence.

"We should probably find the others and wait for your guest." I turned toward the door but his hand on my arm stopped me.

"Why do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Change the subject every time it comes anywhere close to your past?" He turned me so that I was facing him. "I want to know you. I want to know everything there has ever been to know about you. Your human life, your vampire life, all of you but you won't let me."

"There's nothing to know" I looked up at him trying to hide the sadness in my eyes. There were some parts of myself I could never share. "My past is my past and to drudge it up would do nothing but cause heartache."

"Then let me share that with you" He looked so sincere. "Whatever there is let me share it. You're not alone anymore."

"I'm always alone" I remembered the nights when we would make a new camp and all the others would go off to find there relief with others or hunt down as much blood as possible. Jasper hated to leave me but he as well would eventually wonder off and I would find myself lying on a dirt floor of a tent remember how I had felt the same hollowness as a human. With such a large family you would think I would have never felt alone but I had felt more isolated as a human then I had ever felt as a vampire.

"You're not alone anymore" He pulled me into his arms and as they wrapped around me the wall that I had put up unknowingly around my heart cracked. "You have me. You'll always have me."

I wanted to believe him so badly. The lonely girl I had always been cried out to let myself go and give into the warmth that I felt from him. To let him in completely and tell him all he wanted to know. But there was other side. A side that knew well the dangers of becoming too close to someone. A side that had spent lifetimes watching her back lest someone destroy her and that side rebelled at the notion of letting myself become vulnerable. Still the pull from him was so strong that I couldn't make myself move.

I rested in his arms, as he pulled me closer, and let my mind fluctuate between letting him in and kicking hard and running fast. If I let him in and he let me down could I survive it? If I pushed him away and he was my soul mate could I spend forever alone knowing I had ruined the only possible good thing in my life? I didn't know but I did know that I was tired of being alone.

I let my arms wrap around him and heard his sigh of approval. I closed my eyes and just relished being in his arms. This I could easily get use to.

"Hump" I heard someone cough and opened my eyes to find Jasper, the Cullens and a very beautiful blonde woman staring. I heard Edward moan and looked up to see his eyes fixed on the blonde that was shooting daggers at me with her eyes. I didn't have to be a mind reader to see that she did not approve of finding me in Edward's arms. Instantly that wall sealed itself as all my fears were reinforced.

I pushed away from Edward dropping my shield. _I'll always have you_; I filled my thoughts with sarcasm, _Yeah right Edward. Me and how many others?_ With that I snapped my shield back and stormed out the room.

**AN: Happy Wednesday everyone. I hope you have had a great week since last we spoke. This is getting into my first favorite part of the story and I can't wait to hear everyone's reviews. So let me know what you think and don't forget about the preview of next week at my website. Enjoy and I will see ya next chapter.**

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	9. Chapter 8: TORTURE

_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Chapter 8: TORTURE

**Edward POV**

Did I say that tonight would be long? I had meant to say endless. Everyone's thoughts had bombarded me as soon as Bella ran from my arms. Alice ready to play matchmaker, Esme overjoyed that I had found someone, Carlisle worried that they had embarrassed Bella, Emmett's was the dirtiest and Rosalie's were full of shock that I would like some plain looking girl as opposed to her. But only three thoughts mattered in that moment. Jasper who saw himself as Bella's protector, Tanya who saw herself as mine, and Bella who had left me feeling hollow.

Jasper's thought had ranged from tearing me apart to worry over Bella. He had come close to running after her but Alice had held him still. I wasn't sure if that was because she knew Bella needed space or because she wanted Jasper with her. I still didn't understand their threesome but if Jasper had some sort of romantic feeling toward Bella then we would definitely have a problem. Having felt her in my arms there was no way that I was giving her up.

Tanya was livid. She couldn't believe that after all of her trying she could walk in and find me with someone else. That there was someone that could hold a candle to her in anyone's eyes let alone mine. She had become resolved to double her effort, a thought which scared me to my bones, to win my affections and to show this insignificant little thing that I belonged to her and no one else.

But Bella's thoughts had hurt the most. It was strange to have her drop her shield in anger toward me. The only times she had ever shared her thoughts with me had been in fun and understanding when she had wrapped me in her shield so that I didn't have to endure the carnal pleasures of our family. I didn't think she realized what a gift she gave me every night when she did that. Not only did she let me live in a world without thought for a time but she let me see inside her. She let me be a part of her, let me see her heart, and in so doing captured mine.

I hadn't set down to that piano in almost ten years but tonight as I was getting ready for this sham of a party I was thinking about Bella and an overwhelming sense to put my feeling to music came over me. I could almost not finish dressing my feet were in such a hurry to hear my Bella in sound. Then to have her come to me and sit beside me as I was pouring myself onto the keys was nothing short of inspiring. She had thanked me and I could hold myself back no longer. Her mouth beckoned mine and I knew this was my future; she was my future.

Yet I had screwed it up. Not only had I apologized making her think that I didn't want her but I had pushed her to share herself instead of being patient and letting her come to me willingly. And finally to have the whole family and the one woman set on conquering me walk in on us was too much. I should have controlled my reaction but Tanya's thought had been so mean toward Bella and so aggressive toward me that my moan had come out by itself. I could see how Bella might think something was going on between Tanya and I but if she had just waited I would have introduced them with my arms firmly and possessively around her.

Yet she had run and I had been left standing there alone. Tanya had taken that as a good sign and attached herself to my side for the remainder of the night. She hadn't moved at all. If I took a step she took a step. If I sat then she sat. It was like we were Siamese twins are something. The whole night I had spent with Tanya pressed against me and Bella sitting across from me looking at everyone else but me. She sat next to Jasper who kept his arm wrapped around her as if to protect her from me but all that did was make me jealous. It should be my arm wrapped around her. If she needed protection I should be the one to provide it. I wanted her beside me, smiling at me, not him.

Not that Tanya's presence made any of this any easier. She seemed determined to prove to everyone and especially herself that we did have some type of romantic relationship. She kept putting her hand on my knee no matter how many times I removed it. She whispered in my ear, even though I could hear her thoughts, loud enough for a human to hear. Her thought were leaning toward the scandalous every time she looked at me and the smiles she was sending in Bella's direction where positively ruthless. I couldn't, wouldn't, take it anymore.

"Tanya would you walk with me" I asked nicely hoping that she wouldn't recognize my hidden agenda.

"Of course Edward" Another smile sent toward my Bella and she stood. I closed my eyes to stop the snarl that was about to erupt.

_Have fun Edward_, Bella's thought came rushing toward me. She hadn't calmed down a bit._ And don't think you'll be seeing me tonight either but then again I'm sure Tanya can keep you occupied and you can bet that I won't be spending my night listen to the two of you either._

I turned and faced her wishing that she could read my mind. How could I make her understand that she was the only one that I wanted? She was the only one I had ever wanted.

Unfortunately that would have to wait seeing as Tanya had wrapped her arm through mine and was leading me from the room. We left the house and I walked with her until I was sure that no one would be able to hear us. Not that I was concerned for my family but I would hate for Tanya to lose face in front of hers. I stopped abruptly and turned so that we were facing each other.

"Edward" Tanya began moving her hands up my arms. "I must say that tonight as been wonderful."

I stared at her in shock. Was she really that delusional? Could she not tell that I had been miserable all night?

"And this walk has been like the topping on a sundae or something as equally decadent." Her hands were in my hair and I quickly moved to pull them away.

"Tanya this walk is not what you think." I put some distance between us.

"Whatever do you mean Edward" That smile never left her face but her eyes narrowed just the slightest.

"Tanya I meant what I said before. I think you are a great friend but I'm not interested in anything more." I told her.

"Are you referring to that silly little disagreement we had in the woods last week?" She laughed. "Edward every couple has rough times but it's okay."

It had to be delusional. How in the world did she think we were a couple? "Tanya we aren't a couple." I said firmly hoping she would get the point. "I'm not interested in you that way."

The smile cracked slightly. "But Edward" She pushed on. "We are so good together."

"We are not together" I came close to yelling.

Her smile was still there but it had morphed into something sinister. "Is this because of that twit who had herself around you shamelessly early?"

I moved without thought and had Tanya pressed up against a tree with my hand at her throat. "She is not a twit and you would be wise to not speak wrongly of her."

Tanya pushed me into another tree and pinned me there. She had a gleam in her eye that I had never seen before. "Wow Edward, that's the most passion I have ever felt from you before and I have to say that I like it. If that nothing of a girl can get you this worked up then I guess I can accept your dalliances with her every once in a while." Her mouth covered mine harshly. "As long as you remember who you belong to."

Delusional wasn't covering it anymore. She had gone stark raving mad. I pushed her off of me and stood looking down at her. "What is wrong with you?" I asked. "There is no us. There has never been an us and there never will be. Why can't you understand that?"

"Edward"

"No" I cut her off. "No more talking, no more delusions, no more nothing. You will understand that I am not interested in dating you. I'm not interested in being with you in any way and I am definitely not interesting in sleeping with you. Not now; not ever." My voice had risen so high that I absently wondered if they could hear back at the house.

"NO" She screamed at me, throwing me back into another tree. "No one turns me down."

"Are you crazy?" I hoped up staring her down.

"You will not throw me over for that child." She stalked toward me. "Don't you see Edward, I love you."

"No you don't" She had said this repeatedly over the last few months forgetting that I could read her thoughts and knew this was just a game to her.

"Yes I do" She stopped just short of being close to me. "I know that my feelings started as a way to prove I could win your affections but they have grown to be more."

"Tanya you don't love me." I shook my head. "I can read it within you. It's not there."

"Who are you to tell me my feelings?" She stormed over to me. "I say I love you and that is all there is to it."

"No you don't"

"Yes I do"

"No you don't"

"Yes I do"

I opened my mouth to repeat myself once again when I realized that we were not six year olds we were years past adulthood. "Tanya it really doesn't matter whether I'm right or you are. What matters is I don't love you." She staggered back. "At least not the way you mean."

"Excuse me?" She breathed.

"I love you like I love my family." I explained. "Like Rosalie or Esme but nothing more."

"I don't believe you."

"It's true." My thoughts turned to Bella where I knew my heart was. "I don't."

"But you love her?" She snarled.

My instincts told me to tread carefully. I didn't like to think that Tanya was violent but she did possessed the same monster that lived inside all of us. She had the same temper that all vampires owned and I wouldn't let her hurt Bella. I wouldn't let anyone hurt her.

"Does it matter?" I brushed it off. "My feelings are my feelings and I don't have those feelings for you."

"You didn't answer the question."

"Yes I did" I walked closer to her. "I have been saying the same things for months now but you have refused to listen. Whether Bella had shown up yesterday, today, or next year it wouldn't have made a difference. I don't love you, I've never loved you and you need to move on and put me out of your head."

She stared at me. I knew that being a succubus she hated not attaining her goal when she set her eyes on a man but that had always been my problem with her. I didn't want to be some prize that she saw as a sign of victory over my will. I wouldn't become another bump in her bed post that had housed many a man; lots of whom had lost their lives there.

"You can have any man you want" I reassured her. "You could go out tonight and find someone willing to satisfy all of your desires but I'm not that man."

"You could be." She began her game of seduction. Her eyes widened and the pupils dialated. I felt my will being pulled from my body and drawn into hers. She had done this before but I had always managed to resist. I tried closing my eyes but they were under her control. "You could be all that I would ever need and more."

Her arms stole around me again as my mind was held captive by her charms. "You could be so much more than any other conquest. You could be my love. You could be my desire. We could satisfy each other repeatedly. I could spend hours worshiping your body with mine. You could be the end to all my yearning. You could be my mate."

That was just the thing to knock me out of her spell. My long lost heart rebuked her and shined a picture of the woman I wanted as my mate in mind. I shook my head clear and removed her arms. "No Tanya."

"You still refuse when I can see the lust in your eyes." She smiled a sly smile at me. "There is desire within you. I can feel it."

"But it's not for you." I looked into her eyes knowing that she could sense the truth in my words. Like Jasper her powers of seduction also led her to feel out the desire and lust in a person and who it was directed to.

She backed away. "Still her" She looked so shocked. "Why?"

There were so many small reasons and just as many big ones. Bella was like air to me. She filled my thoughts and my heart. She made me feel things that I thought were long gone. When I looked at her and she smiled I smiled to. I knew I didn't know everything about her, or anything really, but I wanted to. I wanted to be the one beside her. To be the one that she ran to when she was scared and for her to know that I would protect her with my life. To know that she was my life. She brought that out in me. That and so much more.

"She makes me want to be better" I shrugged a little in shock myself. Had anyone besides Carlisle ever made me want to strive to do better in this life? To wish that I had a soul so that I could give it to her. I could only hope that she would be satisfied with my heart.

"She's not good enough for you." Tanya's grave voice was hard with anger.

I laughed. "You have that backwards" I smiled. "I'm not good enough for her. She is an angel."

The same sinister glint was back in her eyes. _We'll see_, and with that she ran off into the trees.

I knew she was mad but I hoped that she once she got home and calmed down she would be able to see that all that I had told her was right. She had to know deep down that there wasn't a future for us even if I had been attracted to her. She was driven by sex and domination and I wasn't. I mean I was a man and just the thought of Bella could bring out those emotions but not Tanya; never Tanya. We were nowhere near compatible.

Still I hoped that we could one day go back to the friendship that we had established before this last move to Alaska. When we had stayed here the first time things had been easier between us. We had laughed and she had become as a sister to me. I still had no idea what had changed upon our return. One day we were racing through the trees and the next she was straddling me and telling me that she wanted me. It was strange and very uncomfortable.

I had tried to let her down gently. Again and again I had tried but she had refused to see and now with Bella here there was nothing more that could be done. I knew that I should have tried to be more gentlemanly during our conversation but she had been so hell bent on disparaging Bella. Not to mention that I had spent the better part of the night pushing her off me and wishing Bella was the one at my side. Given that I think that I probably handled the situation better than I should have expected.

I ran a hand through my hair. Now I had to deal with Bella who apparently had quite a temper. I had noticed it a few times with Alice and Rosalie but she had never turned that side of herself on me. Even with Alice or Rosalie she still seemed to control herself so as not to push too far. I didn't know if that was because she cared for them or a reflex from her past; mainly because I didn't know anything of her past.

I was also surprised that Jasper didn't either. I had searched through his thoughts on occasion, which I wasn't proud of, for any insight into Bella but he seemed to know as little as I did. On top of that he also seemed to intentionally not think about the time that he was alone with Bella before Alice. I didn't know why but I didn't like it. If they had had a relationship beyond father and daughter or brother and sister then I deserved to know. What if they still did? Could that have been the real reason that Bella pulled away from me and wouldn't share herself? Was she protecting what she had with Jasper?

I stalked back to the house but stopped myself a few yards away. What am I thinking? Even at this distance I could hear Jasper's thought and although there was worry for Bella they were consumed with Alice. It was obvious that he loved her without distraction and I was being jealous again. I shook my head and smiled at myself. I had never had a jealous bone in my body but since meeting Bella I seem to be perpetually jealous or possessive or barely able to control myself.

I sat on the steps outside the house and listen to the voices coming out steadily. The Denali's were still here and I was in no mood to explain my return without Tanya. My thoughts wondered back to the blonde that had stalked away from me not that long ago. That sly smile on her face and vicious gleam in her eye, my dead heart started racing. Would she hurt Bella? Would she try to do something that would send her away? I growled deep in my chest.

Let her try. Let anyone try. I had finally found someone worth everything to me. Someone that I could feel for the same as my family felt for their mates. No one was taking her away from me. Not Tanya, not Jasper, not even her or myself. I would win Bella's heart and I would protect it with my own. And as for the rest, I would kill anyone that tried to hurt her. Including Tanya; friendship be damned.

**AN: Alright, everyone this has been fun and I can't wait until next week. I know that it is Thanksgiving and that New Moon comes out this week so I am hoping that I don't lose any of you along the way but if you are going to be busy please come back the following week. Talk later.**

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	10. Chapter 9: MEMORIES

_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Chapter 9: MEMORIES

**Jasper POV**

"Here you are kitten" I walked over and sat next to Bella on the outside swing in the back of the Cullen house. I had been looking all around for her ever since the Denalis had left twenty minutes ago. Alice had assured me that she needed time to figure out her feelings for Edward and that we should give her space but I wasn't buying it. First, because I knew Bella and second, because I could feel the excitement inside Alice. She was jumping up and down inside that Edward and Bella might get together. What she had really wanted was time to match make.

"I didn't know you were looking for me." She didn't look up but kept her eyes on a flower bush in the distance.

"Yep" I moved the swing back and forth looking to draw her out.

It didn't work. We sat there swinging absently not saying a word. This was the worst I had ever seen her. Bella had always been a bit of a loner but she always seemed willing to talk to me. There were times that she stayed in her head but within minutes if I just sat next to her she would open up. Even that night long ago when she had been scheduled to die and I had talked Maria into keeping her past her one year mark she had eventually talked to me. She had explained that part of her had wanted the flames because she hated the lifestyle that we were forced into. I had understood but selfishly I couldn't let her go. For so long she had been my only tie to humanity.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I couldn't let her sit and be miserable by herself any longer.

"Not really" She still kept her eyes locked away.

"Would you like me to beat him up?" I smiled. I wasn't sure I could take Edward in a fight what with his reading my mind but I did have decades worth of experience and for Bella I could sure try.

"No" Her voice sounded so far away.

"Do you want me to get Alice to beat him up?" That would probably be a fairer fight. He could read her mind and she could predict what he was about to do. They could be fighting for eternity.

She smirked. "That might be worth seeing." She laughed. "Does she even come up to his waist?"

I laughed too. Alice was small but we both knew that she wasn't that small. "Of course she does." Sarcasm was always the best way to get to Bella. "But I was thinking more along the lines of a makeover."

She really laughed at that. "Sure fire way to torture anybody." She finally looked over at me. "Thanks"

I put my arm around her shoulder. "Anytime" I smiled down at her.

She leaned her head on my shoulder and again I worried how to protect her. It seemed Maria wasn't the only hurt after Bella. Edward had somehow wormed his way into her life. I couldn't read her emotions but her face had always been an open book and I saw how she looked at him. She cared for him and his emotions were sky high whenever she was around.

I don't know what happened in that music room before we entered but I could feel him throughout the house. He loved her. There was no denying it. There was also no denying that the blonde woman, Tanya, was not pleased with it. The lust coming off her was enough to make me grab Alice and run for a nearby bed.

But there had been more to it than just lust. I hadn't felt that sort of anger toward Bella since we left Maria. I didn't want to say for certain but I felt hatred coming from her and she didn't know Bella at all. I couldn't understand it until I saw her actions. She had clung to Edward like glue and his emotions had gone from love to disgust faster than Alice could shop. Every time she touched him his body practically vibrated with distain. It was somewhat comical considering I wasn't feeling all that charitable to him since he had hurt Bella.

And she was hurting. I didn't have to feel it to know. Part of me wondered if this had anything to do with the fiancé that I had stolen her from. Could she feel guilt for someone long since dead and gone?

"Bella, can I ask you something?" I had never pushed her to share her past but I didn't want her shoulder any guilt that should be placed with me.

"Always" I could hear the smile in her voice.

"Let me know if I'm over stepping my bounds here." I stalled.

She leaned back and looked me dead in the eye with one of her patented smiles. "I always do"

"True" I smiled back. "But I don't want you to think I'm pushing." I hedged.

"Jazzy, just spit it out." She placed one hand on her waist.

"Okay" I closed my eyes and took a breath. I didn't want to upset her seeing as she had a nasty temper when really mad but I had to know. "What happened earlier with Edward did you….."

"I said I didn't want to talk about it." Her voice rose.

"Not about the two of you." I corrected quickly and she looked as though she had calmed down some. "I was wondering….that is I was just thinking…….well it was possible….."

"Jasper please tell me you are not trying to have the birds and bees talk with me" I started choking. "Because I can assure you that after living this many years and then being alone with you and Alice for three years and now spending a week in this house I think I pretty much know what to expect."

I couldn't breathe. I knew I didn't need to breath but even if I did I would be blue now from lack of oxygen. "Isabella Marie Swan"

"What?" She looked at me smiling. "You started it."

"I can safely tell you that I most certainly did not." All my concern about drudging up the past was gone. "I merely wanted to know if you felt guilt over having feeling for Edward because of your fiancé."

Bella sat and stared at me for a moment and I took that as a yes. "I simply wanted to let you know that you shouldn't." I tried to ease her mind. "That guilt lies with me. I stole you away from him and your family. You can't blame yourself for moving on. He's long gone now and you deserve a chance to be happy. I'm not sure this Edward character is the one for you but whoever does turn out to be him then its okay to be with him." I stammered.

"Not in a birds and bees sort of way; although that is okay to. Well at least it's okay if you love each other and you're sure he's your mate. But you should wait and make sure. Don't rush into anything. Make sure he respects you." I shook my head. This was so much more than I had meant to say.

I looked over at Bella not surprised to find her eyes wide open and on me. Then her shoulders began to shake, her lips cracked, and her eyes closed. Great I had made her cry.

"Bella I'm sorry" I pulled her into a hug. "I didn't mean to make you cry. I just wanted you to know it's alright to like someone."

That was when I heard it. "I'm not crying you idiot." Bella pulled back. "I'm laughing."

"Laughing?"

"Yeah" She looked at me smiling. "What else did you expect? I tell you my own mother didn't have as hard a time with 'the talk' as you just did and that was the night before my wedding."

I was laughing with her until she mentioned the wedding. I stopped and stared at her. "I thought you hadn't been married?"

A somber look crossed her face. "We hadn't" She shrugged. "Our wedding was to be the day after you found me."

I sucked in air but it did nothing to quash the pain spreading through my body. I had changed her on the night before her wedding. I had left a man standing at the altar wondering what happened to the love of his life. How had she ever forgiven me?

"Bella" I moved away from her. "I am so…."

"If you start apologizing to me again Jasper Whitlock I will throw you through that wall over there." She crossed her arms. "I have told you a hundred times there is nothing to apologize for."

"But Bella" Didn't she understand what I had done? "I stole you from your family. I denied you the chance to marry…"

"An ass" she finished for me.

I stared at her. Could she really mean that? "Bella?" She never talked about her human life and I was shocked that she would use such a derogatory term to describe the man that she had been about to share her life with.

"Look Jasper" She took a breath. "You know I hate to talk about my life before you but trust me, Clement was an ass and you did me a favor by stopping that wedding."

I couldn't bring my eyes away from her. "Was he mean to you?"

She laughed again but this wasn't her normal laugh. This one was hollow and sad. "He was mean to everyone; except his mama." She shook her head. "That man would have walked on water had that old bat of a woman asked him to and she hated me. Resented me from the first moment I walked into their house. If she had had a choice it would have been a cold day in hell before Clement and I were married." She laughed again but this one was closer to her regular one. "She probably rejoiced when they couldn't find me for the wedding. I'll bet she even danced on my grave."

I coughed lightly. Could she be serious? I knew Bella would lie to me to make me feel better but she looked so far away like she was stuck in a memory. It was that look that made me believe her.

"If she had hated you so much and didn't want the wedding then why were you marrying him?" She was finally answering some of my long held questions and as long as she would share I would ask.

"Our fathers had been good friends." The look was still there. "They had wanted so much for their children to join the families. So when I was born betrothal agreements were signed. It didn't matter that Clement was already fifteen years old or that he was seeing some other girl in town and had made promises to her." A far off smile crossed her lips. "Papa was stubborn like that. When he wanted something he got it. Didn't matter that he died a few years before, by that time Clement saw me as his property and he wasn't about to let me go."

I started to say something but she kept going. "I tried too. I begged mama but she grieved papa so that she couldn't look at us kids. I asked my brothers but they were all off and married themselves. It didn't help that they had never so much as looked at me for more than two minutes my whole life. They didn't see what the big deal was considering that we had been promised since my birth. I even found a few boys in town and tried to get them to have their way with me but everyone knew I was to marry Clement so no one would go for it." She looked back at me. "In the end I had just resigned myself to my fate and prayed that I would have the strength to endure. I was wondering the fields wishing that I had the strength to run when I felt you come up around me. I knew I was going to die and I welcomed it. I welcomed anything that would take me away from those who were supposed to be closest to me."

She reached out her hand and laid it against my check. "And when I woke and saw your face looking down at me I thanked God that he had spared me. That he had given me a second chance to do what I wanted in life and an eternity to do it in." She smiled. "That is why I have never held you guilty. Why I have never felt anything for you other than love. You saved me and gave me a chance. For that I will always be grateful."

If I could cry I would. All this time I had thought, no I had known, that she resented me for my actions but it was there in her honeyed eyes. She really did mean all that she had said. I wrapped my arms around her and just held her. This was my family. No matter what she was my daughter, sister, whatever. If she thought that I had saved her then I would; anytime she needed.

"You saved me too." I told her.

"Stop your lying" She pulled back and her cheeky smile was back. "I was nothing more than a pain in your butt."

I laughed. "You were that too." I pushed against her. "But you did save me." I told her. "I don't know what type of monster I would have become if I hadn't had you with me to keep me in line. To remind me that there was some humanity left. That was part of my guilt."

"It was?"

"Yes" I put my arm back around her shoulders. "You always seemed so happy to be with us. I knew that you hated what we were doing but when there wasn't fighting or hunting you would be smiling and joking as if you were having the time of your life."

"I was when it was just us." She told me.

"Still it helped to remind me that if you could find happiness somewhere with all that we were living through then maybe there was a chance for me. Which is what made me feel guilty. How could I deserve to be happy after what I had done to you? How could I think that I should have a chance at feeling anything human again after I had stolen your humanity away? And if there was some humanity inside me then how had I done what I did to you?"

"Jasper, you always were so silly" She leaned her head back down. "You always deserved to be happy and you had that wrong."

"How so"

"It was you that kept me happy and smiling and laughing." She seemed so peaceful in her memories of us not like before. "You were always doing something to make me laugh or making fun of me or yourself. You kept me happy. You gave me back my humanity."

I smiled and started the swing again. I felt contentment wrap around me and I looked down to see Bella smiling at me.

"Are you doing that?" I asked.

"Of course" She answered. "I wanted you to really feel that I mean what I said."

"I do" I kissed her forehead. She had said that I gave her back her humanity but as always she had it wrong. She was the reason I was sitting here, the reason I could love Alice, the reason I could love anyone.

It was time. We had been with the Cullens for a week now and Alice for three years and we had shared nothing. They needed to know what might be coming for us if they allowed us to stay. I didn't for one second think that Maria had given up. She would find a way to get to us and if the Cullens or Alice were anywhere near us at the time she would destroy them to. I couldn't let that happen.

I looked down at Bella with her eyes closed resting on my shoulder and a smile on her face. She was happy here. Even with what happened tonight I had seen a lightness to her here that I had never seen before and I knew Edward loved her. I didn't understand his relationship with that Tanya woman and how it pertained to Bella but I felt the love coming from him. I trusted that he would protect her whether I could or not.

And my Alice loved her almost more than she loved me. Sure she drove Bella crazy with the makeovers and dress up but she honestly saw her as a sister or daughter or both. She would do whatever it took to protect her. Emmett would be great to have in a fight and he had taken to Bella like fish to water. He teased her worst than I ever had and always called her his little sis and if Emmett fought with us then so would Rosalie. She would do anything for that man and it went both ways. So with some allies we might be okay but if they were going to stand with us then they needed to know what they were standing up to.

But was it fair? They had known us a week and we had dealt with this for a lifetime. What right did we have to barge in and break up their happy family? To put them all in danger? We needed to give them a choice. They deserved a right to decide if they wanted this burden but either way my lot in this life was to protect Bella. For my humanity and so much more.

"Bella" I stopped the swing so that she would know that I was serious.

"I know" She whispered.

"It's time" She shook her head in agreement.

"I'm scared" She voiced.

"Don't worry" I squeezed her shoulder. "We'll do it together."

"But what if they don't understand?" Her voice was so quiet. "What if you lose Alice?"

My insides cringed at the thought. "I won't."

"You don't know that."

"I do" I had to believe that it was true. "What if you lose Edward?"

"I don't have Edward." She spoke a little louder. "At least not the way that Tanya does."

I smiled. If only she knew but it wasn't my place to tell her. He would have to be a man and share his feeling himself. "Trust me you don't want Edward to feel about you the way he does about Tanya."

"What does that mean?"

"That is a conversation for the two of you." I moved back to what we were previously discussing. "Either way it doesn't change the fact that they need to know."

"Okay" She hesitated. "I hate this."

"So do I."

"Maybe she's forgotten?"

"Unlikely"

"I know"

I hugged her closer. "I want to talk to Alice first."

"Makes sense" She shrugged.

"Would you like to talk to Edward first too?" I teased.

"You must be joking." She swatted at me. "Not after tonight."

I chuckled to myself. It was funny to see Bella jealous. Edward was a lucky man or at least he was if he did right by Bella. If he didn't I would have to step in. No matter what she would always be mine to protect.

"Okay so it's decided" I let out a breath. "We tell them tomorrow."

"Why not tell me now?" I looked over to find Edward staring at us with a look of sear fury across his face. This night just kept getting better and better.

**AN: Happy Turkey Day :). I know that I am a day early but with the holiday right around the corner and the fact that I had a death in my family this weekend it was easier for me to post today verses tomorrow. I hope you enjoy and next week we will be back to the regular posting schedule. **

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	11. Chapter 10: SUSPICION

_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Chapter 10: SUSPICION

**Bella POV**

"Why not tell me now?" Edward was standing in the kitchen doorway with his hands on his hips and his eyes blazing.

"Excuse me?" I looked over at him. Jasper looked torn between anger and pain. I didn't know if either of those emotions were coming from Edward but after the night that he had put me through I wasn't sure that I cared.

"Why don't I leave you two alone?" Jasper stood.

"No don't" Edward told him. "It's clear that Bella would rather be with you than me. I would just appreciate you both tell me in private that there is something going on between you two then tomorrow in front of the whole family."

"WHAT?" I jumped up from the swing and looked at him. He had to be kidding.

"Although I'm a little surprised" He was staring at Jasper. "I was pretty sure you were a better man than that. What about Alice or are you planning on having your cake and eating it too?"

"Edward…" Jasper started but I cut him off.

"How dare you." I walked vampire speed up to him so that we were face to face. "You kiss me and then parade that blonde bitch in front of me all night long with her whispered words that everyone can hear and her insulting touches and you have the nerve to talk about someone else wanting there cake and eating it too.

"Bella it's not like that." He was looking at me now.

"Really Edward, how is it?" I crossed my arms. "Do the two of you just get together on occasion? Is she your Alaska girl? Are you both into other people too? Do you lure them in with that 'I haven't had that much experience with women' crap and then go running back to her when you feel the need? Please Edward, tell how it is?"

"There is nothing going on between Tanya and me."

"You can say anything you want to me Edward but don't lie." I was inches away from slapping him. "I saw the two of you tonight."

"That was all her" He explained.

"Sure it was" I shook my head. "Cause we all know how shy you are around women."

"Bella"

"What Edward?" I looked him right in the eye. "You tell me again how you haven't had any women up in your room? Or how about the one where you've never been in love? You really expect me to believe a word you say right now."

"Bella you have to"

"No I don't" I started. "I'm not the one that played all shy and cute. I'm not the one that lead you into thinking that there might be something going on here. That was you."

"There is something going on here." He reached for me but I moved out of his grasp.

"Yeah, between you and Tanya."

"That's not true."

"Really" I spit as much sarcasm into my voice as I could. "Then why did you take her out for a long romantic stroll? Is that why are you just getting back?"

"I took her out for a walk so that I could remind her that there was nothing going on between us and I'm not just getting back."

"What you two came back early for a little romp in your un-used room? Is she still up there now? Planning some all night fun?" I saw Jasper moving out the side of my eye and turned on him. "I swear Jasper if you leave me alone out here with him I will tear him apart and beat you with the pieces."

"Bella" Jasper moved backwards. "Maybe you should calm down a little.

"Your emotion control doesn't work on me or have you forgotten." I felt him trying to manipulate me.

"Just hopeful" He smiled tightly at me. "I've seen your temper."

"Of course you have" Edward jumped in. "You two share everything. I bet you probably know more about her than anyone." Edward was back to looking at Jasper. "I beat she even shared her past with you. Told you all about her life before becoming a vampire? Tell me, was that before or after you two ended up in bed?"

I was on top of him before I knew it. I knocked him down and grabbed at his arms fully intent on taking him down piece by piece.

I vaguely heard Jasper yell at someone to stay back and I felt his arms wrap around me and pull me off Edward. There was murder in my eyes and I knew it but how could he say such a mean thing to me. He hadn't cared for me at all. There was no way that he could have felt anything loving for me and then say such a hurtful thing.

Somewhere in my mind it registered that I was moving and I looked around to see trees flying by. I noticed that Jasper still had me by the waist and I was flung over his back.

"Put me down." I screamed.

"Not likely" He kept moving. "Not until you calm down."

"I am calm"

"Sure" Again no response accept that he picked up his speed. "That's why you're still screaming."

"Am not" I yelled but that only served to let me know that he was right. "I am not" I lowered my voice.

He laughed and kept running. I had no idea where we were headed and I just wanted to walk. "If I promise not to yell anymore will you please put me down?"

He stopped and placed me on my feet. "Thank you" I told him.

He looked at me and shook his head. "Bella what the hell were you thinking?" He sounded so upset. It brought me back to those days with Maria when he had been in charge of the newborns. He was Major Whitlock through and through. "With your training you could have killed him."

I closed my eyes and let my head fall back. "I know"

"Not just him but if any of the other had tried to interfere you would have attacked them to."

"I know" The shame washed over me. I hadn't meant to attack Edward. It had been a gut reaction brought on by years of conditioning. He hurt me so I had to hurt him. I knew it was wrong and Jasper had every right to be upset with me. I had ruined everything.

"Jasper I'm so sorry." I fell down on the ground with my face in my hands. "I was so wrong. What have I done?" His arms where around me and he was comforting me after what I had done, it was unbelievable. That only made my guilt double. "If you want me to leave I will."

"Come on Bella" He laughed. "What would I do without you to keep things interesting? Besides what did you tell me last time I had a slip; it's just one mistake in a sea of millions."

"That was different."

"How?" He asked.

"It was you" I tried and was rewarded with Jasper's laugh.

"See that is exactly why you can't leave." He rubbed my back. "I need that quick wit of yours to keep me grounded."

"Alice could do it."

"Alice isn't you." He pushed me away so that I could look in his face. "You're my family. You're the only family I have known for this whole existence. I need Alice but I need you too." I smiled. "So will you please stop talking about leaving? You and me, we're a pair got it."

"But a pair of what?" I smirked.

"Misfits to be sure, but still a pair." He hugged me to his side. "You go; I go."

"And Alice?"

"I would bet that she would also tag along." He squeezed my shoulder. "She seems to love you too."

I laughed. "Is that why she keeps trying to torture me?"

"No" He said. "That's why she keeps try to help. It's not her fault that you both see helping in different ways. Trust me her heart is in the right place."

"I know" and I did. Alice was a great sister and mother. She was better than my own had been. Not that I didn't love my mother but I had been such a daddy's girl and she had doted on her sons. It was like she only tolerated me knowing that one day I would be gone. With Alice even though I yelled and pushed she always came back. She stayed no matter what and that was what made her great. It's what made me love her also.

"They're going to be mad" I told him.

"Maybe"

"And we will have a lot of explaining to do. Maria, the south, and all that."

"Yep"

"Probably more now than we would have before."

"True"

"Edward might really be hurt."

"Yes"

"And Alice might have three heads."

"Doubtful" He looked at me strangely. "Why would you think that?"

"I don't but I was trying to see if you could say anything more than one word answers."

"Funny" He went back to the one word and smiled at me.

"Nice" I raised my eyebrows at him daring him to continue.

"Sure" He replied.

"I give up" I shook my head. "You win."

"Normal" He laughed and despite wanting to I laughed to. "We have to go back."

I breathed deeply. I knew he was right. It wouldn't be fair to just attack Edward and then not return to explain why. "Fine but do I have to tell them why I attacked him."

"Absolutely not" Jasper looked incensed. "If you were to repeat what he said I might have to attack him myself."

"Why didn't you?" Jasper had a faster temper than me and he could read emotions. I knew he couldn't read mine but Edward had been just as upset as I was so between his own anger and Edwards he should have bet me to the punch.

"What?" He stood.

"Why didn't you attack him?" I pushed him while standing myself. "Your temper is just as bad as mine if not worse. Combine that with Edward's anger and you should have moved before I did. But you stayed calm and got me out of there."

"I wasn't feeling angry." He looked around as if he didn't want to look at me.

"What were you feeling?"

"Don't make me tell you?" He whined.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because it's not my emotion to tell" He was wiping the dirt with his toe.

"Whose is it?"

"Bella please" He still wouldn't look up. "This is between you and Edward. You know I would do anything for you but please don't make me tell you."

What could Edward have been feeling that Jasper wouldn't want to share and that stopped him from attacking? It wasn't anger which surprised me, but Jasper had said so himself. What other emotions are there when arguing with someone?

"Fine" I would ask Edward. That is if he would ever speak to me again. "You don't have to tell me."

"Thank you Bella" He looked up at me and the relief was so evident that it made me almost want to ask again. "Should we get going?"

I took one more look at him. "Yeah I guess so." I nodded. "It's not like it's going to get any easier if we wait."

"That's for sure" He started walking back. I moved to follow but was stopped by a strong piercing to my shield. It was as if someone was trying desperately to get in or to use it to hurt me somehow. I fell to my knees the pain was so strong.

"Bella?" Jasper was by my side in an instant. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know" I breathed. My head was pounding and my eyes were becoming unfocused. In all my years in battle I had never felt anything like this. "Jasper it hurts"

"What?" He questioned panic in his voice. "What hurts?"

"My head" I placed my hands up to ward off whatever was doing this. "Make it stop."

Jasper scooped me up and began racing back to the Cullens. I buried my head in his shoulder and let the wind whip around me. The further we moved away from wherever we had been the better I felt. By the time we reached the back porch my head was almost back to normal but that didn't stop Jasper.

"Carlisle" He yelled carrying me up to my room. "Carlisle we need help." I wasn't sure if they would come but before my body touched the bed every Cullen and Alice were crowded in.

"What happened?" I was surprised that the voice with worry was not Jasper or even Carlisle but Edward. He was beside me sitting on the bed with my hand in his. He didn't look mad at all just extremely concerned.

"I don't know" Jasper was shaking his head. "We were on our way back and Bella just collapsed. She said her head was hurting. I've never seen her in so much pain." Alice was by him holding his hand.

"She'll be okay Jasper" She whispered.

"Make her better." Jasper never took his eyes away from me and he looked so much like a little kid when he said that. I smiled up at him and tried to move but found I had three sets of hands on me; Carlisle, Jasper and Edward.

"Lie still and let Carlisle look at you." Edward ordered.

"I'm fine now." I made to move again but found that their hands had been joined by Emmett. I signed. There was no way I was moving now. I leaned back and rested against the pillows.

"Thank you" Edward spoke softly.

"Now Bella tell me what happened?" Carlisle was in full doctor mode.

"It was strange" I looked up at him. "I was about to start walking and I felt like someone or something was trying to penetrate my shield. I have felt it before but never to this magnitude. It was like something piercing into my skull. I couldn't move or breath or anything."

"And you've never experienced that before?" Carlisle eyes moved as if he was taking notes in his head.

"No" I shook my head. "At least not at that level. The other part was that the further we moved away from that spot the better I felt."

"I see" Again his eyes moved quickly back and forth. "Let me get my back and look you over although I don't think anything is wrong with you physically. I think someone was looking for a way through your shield and they found a weakness. It's just a question of if they know it or not."

"But who?" Edward asked and looked between Jasper and myself. "Who knows about her shield besides us here?"

I looked at Jasper and we both thought the same name. She had finally found us. We would have to leave. We couldn't put the Cullens in danger. Especially not after what I did tonight.

"Who's Maria?" Edward looked at Jasper then at me. "You've mentioned that name before." Damn, that first night. What had I been thinking?

"Not someone for you to worry about." I looked at Jasper and he was looking at me with his eyes narrowed. I closed my eyes trying to figure out how I could leave without the Cullens or Jasper following. He had found someone in Alice and I couldn't let him risk that love for me.

"I think she is" Edward had his hands cupping my face. "Especially if she tried to hurt you."

"It's not that simple" I opened my eyes and looked at him. "Some things never are."

"Then make it simple." He was staring back at me. "Because I am not about to let anyone hurt you."

He was staring at me so intently that I had to look around but somehow the room seemed to have cleared. There was no one there except for Edward and me. "Edward this isn't your fight."

"If this Maria person is trying to get to you then it is" He was shaking his head.

"You don't know what you're saying." He didn't know. He had never met anyone like Maria before. She was ruthless for no reason except that she was good at it. She would stop at nothing to kill me and Edward would just be collateral damage in her eyes. She would destroy him before he raised a hand to defend himself. She had decades of fight behind her and evil to boot.

"Bella" Edward pulled me back out of my mind. "I meant what I said earlier." He kissed my cheek. "I want to share everything with you and you are not alone anymore."

"For how long Edward?" I looked at him seriously. "A day, a week, a month? Until the next time Tanya feels lonely?"

"You have to believe me Bella" He looked so hurt. "There is nothing going on between Tanya and I and I'm so sorry for what I said. It was wrong and stupid and hurtful. My only defense is that I was hurting because you were leaning on Jasper for comfort when I wanted you to lean on me and I lashed out. Can you forgive me?"

He was asking for my forgiveness? I had attacked him and he thought he needed to apologize. And that was what he had been feeling? Hurt?

"Edward, I'm the one that should be asking for forgiveness." I told him. "I'm the one that attacked you."

"But you had reason; rightfully so." He leaned down so that our foreheads where touching. "I was just jealous. That's no excuse."

"You were jealous?"

"So jealous" He smiled that crooked smile that melted my dead heart. "I had been all night. I am every time I see you with Jasper. I get jealous and possessive and apparently stupid."

"But why?"

"Because he knows you" He answered. "He knows you in a way that you won't let me. You two have a bond that I can't touch. You have years of history with him and you won't share any of it."

His lips brushed mine. "But mostly because I love you and the idea of sharing you makes me a little crazy. How do I know that you and he haven't been involved before? You're so close. What's to stop you from becoming involved now? And I never want to lose you. It would hurt too much." His eyes drilled into me. "Bella you are my life now."

I looked up into those beautiful eyes and my wall crumbed to dust. I saw it. Right there in his eyes, in his touch, in his smile. He meant every word. But there was so much that I needed to tell him. So much that he needed to understand and if I was going to share then I needed to do it now.

"Can we go downstairs?" I moved to sit up.

"Right now?" He looked fallen.

"Yes right now." I held his hand. "There are some things Jasper and I need to tell you."

"I see" He dropped his head.

"No you don't" I raised it. "But you will."

**AN: Alright ladies and gentleman. I hope you enjoyed and I hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and eat until you're stuffed and happy. At least those are my plans. See you all next week and if you haven't gone out and seen the Twilight Saga: New Moon then take a little time to do it this weekend. You will be thankful that you did.**

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	12. Chapter 11: PAST

_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Chapter 11: PAST

**Edward POV**

I had poured my heart out and Bella's first reaction was to mention Jasper. How stupid was I? She didn't want me. Why would she? I was a soulless monster who had unintentionally hurt her by being associated with a woman who wouldn't take no for an answer. Was it Bella's fault that I didn't deserve her and she knew it? No it was mine. And now we were walking hand in hand down to talk with the one person that I didn't want to hear owned her heart.

"Jazzy, it really is time." She let go of me and walked directly over to his side. I took small comfort in the fact that at least Alice and I would be able to help each other through the heartbreak. She really had become my favorite sister and maybe that was all that there was for me; my family.

"I know" Jasper had his arm around her shoulder and I wanted so bad to knock it off. He was touching the love of my world right in front of me as if it was nothing to him. He looked over at me, _Calm down Edward everything will be alright. At least I hope._

Sure he had reason to hope. He was going to walk away tonight with my angel and I would be left alone once again. I wonder would she block the two of them from me. I had to believe so. I didn't think I could bear to hear them going at it night after night.

"Did you talk to Alice?" She looked so nervous. Well it served her right. She shouldn't be calm when she was about to break my heart and her best friends.

_Really Edward_, Jasper looked back at me. _Give it a rest. Your emotions are killing me._ Jasper rubbed his head and my smile had to have told him I was glad. The woman I wanted to spend forever with was about to chose him and he wanted me to make it easier for him. If I could feel every emotion in the book I would just to shove it in his face.

"He told me, Bella." Alice bounded into the room looking just as high spirited as always. Didn't she know what was about to happen? She walked over to Bella and pulled her into one of her bone crushing hugs. What was going on? Could Alice be that excepting of Jasper and Bella? Didn't she realize that we were both about to have our hearts crushed? "I wish you two had shared this sooner but I understand and you are still my very best friend and my sister and if anyone wants to get to you they will have to go through me." She pulled back and gave her a stern look. "Understood?"

"Yes, mama" Bella smiled at her.

"I wish I could see your future." Alice ignored her while looking puzzled. "That might help because at least I could get a look at this Maria and maybe be able to track her to see if she is coming for you."

"Do you think that would help?" Jasper was staring Alice down.

"I'm not sure, maybe." Alice shrugged. I didn't understand any of their conversation and I wished they would let me in. I felt like I was missing something important but I didn't know what.

"Well, Bella can drop her shield and you could probably get a read on her." Jasper told her.

Alice's mouth dropped open. "Isabella Maria Swan, why have you never told me that before?"

"You didn't ask" She laughed and Alice puffed. "Really Alice it's no big deal. I don't do it that often and there was nothing I could think of that you needed to see in my future so I never thought to let you look."

"Nothing for me to see?" Alice practically wailed which brought the rest of the family into the room. "You only have a deranged vampire stalking you hell bent on killing you and anyone else and you didn't think that was important?" What? Now I was really confused and more than anything I wanted to pull Bella back to me and stand guard over her every minute to protect her. She might not be mine but that didn't stop me from loving her and wanting her safe and I would lay down my life to make sure that she was.

"Not really" Bella's voice sounded shaky.

"Alice it's not her fault." Jasper stood up for her. "I didn't want to tell you." He walked over to her and hugged her to him. "I was scared."

"Scared?"

"I didn't want to lose you." He kissed her forehead. "You're the best thing that has ever happened to me and I love you so much. I was scared that if you knew, really knew my history then you would be disappointed. You might not love me the same."

Alice laughed. "You're so silly. Did you really think that would make a difference? I love you Jazz. I have always loved you. When I woke up I knew that you were the only person I could ever love. No amount of history could change that."

"You are amazing" He kissed her and I looked over at Bella to see her reaction. She was looking at me with a smile. Maybe all hope wasn't lost.

I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her waist. "Will you please explain everything?"

"Yes" She nodded and stood on her toes to kiss my check. "Jazzy?"

"Right" He pulled away from Alice and looked at the rest of the family. "Bella and I have a few things we need to share with you and afterwards if you would like us to leave then we would understand."

"Leave?" Esme questioned. "Why would you think such a thing?"

"We're family now" Emmett spoke up. "Family sticks together."

"Because there are things in our past that aren't pretty" Bella explained. "Things that are still after us and would stop at nothing to destroy us."

"Bring them on" Emmett flexed his muscles.

Bella and Jasper laughed but sat down on the sofa next to us. Alice was beside Jasper and Bella had pulled me next to her. She was holding my hand as if she couldn't let go and that was fine with me. I never wanted her to let go.

"Perhaps you should explain." Carlisle spoke in his always calm voice.

Bella looked to Jasper and he began. "When I went off to war I had no idea that as we were fighting the North there was another war taking place alongside us."

"You're talking about the southern vampire wars?" Carlisle interrupted.

"Yes" Jasper continued. "I was changed to become a part of that war. I didn't understand what had happened when I woke up. There was no one there and all I could think of was that I needed to get out of there. I ran and found myself in a field." He looked over at Bella. "You were there and for years it always puzzled me why you were out there in the middle of the night."

"I was to be married the next day." Bella supplied. "I wasn't in love with my fiancé. Truth was I couldn't stand him but my father and his were friends and they had signed my betrothal the day after my birth. I was out there trying to think of a way out." I squeezed her hand. I didn't like the fact that she had been meant for someone else but I took comfort in the fact that she said she didn't love him and he was long gone.

"I came upon her and bit her without knowing what I was doing." Jasper continued the story. "I didn't know that I could feel emotions at that time but hers overwhelmed me and I stopped. I rushed back to where I had woken up in hope that someone would be able to save her but I was told that it was too late. She was already changing."

"We were taught to fight by the woman that had changed me. She saw that there was more potential in me versus the others so she kept me close." Jasper was in another time. I could see it all playing out in his head. Every word he spoke brought forth a memory. I saw Bella as she was changed and felt her pain. I saw the two of them fighting side by side; Jasper risking himself to protect her. "The only problem to her was Bella."

"Jasper felt responsible for me since he had changed me." She looked at him and smiled. "I would also say he felt guilty too but me, I was just happy that I didn't have to go through with that sham of a marriage. I hated what we were doing but I was happy to be away from my family. Which I know sounds harsh but they were not a loving bunch." I wanted to pull her into my arms. I hated that she had suffered and I had not been able to be there for her. I thought of the memories that I had of my parents. They were long faded but I knew that they had loved me. I knew that we had been important to each other but Bella didn't have that. I put my arm around her and swore that she would from now on. She would know that she was loved, that she was important to me if no one else.

"Maria hated that." Jasper took over again. "She hated that Bella was always with me. That I would protect her in battles. We probably would never have found out about Bella's shield if it wasn't for her."

"She attacked me one night" Bella spoke but Jasper relived the memory. "She came into my tent and jumped on top of me. Before I could move she had me pinned and I was sure that I was going to be destroyed. All I did was wish that she would let me go. That she couldn't touch me and within seconds she had moved away. I ran but she chased me. She would get close but couldn't reach me. I stopped outside Jasper's tent and screamed for him but he wasn't there."

"I heard her though and I took off in that direction." Jasper looked at her. "I had sworn to protect her the day I had taken her life and I meant to keep that promise. When I reached my tent I was in shock. Maria was moving around her but it was like Bella had some kind of shield around herself. She couldn't get within a foot of her. I went to stand beside her and Maria backed off."

"After that she spent a month trying again." Bella finished. "Every other night she would come at me but I had learned to think of her not touching me and she couldn't. It infuriated her but she finally gave up and decided to let me die in the 'year curse'."

"The what?" Rosalie asked.

"When a newborn vampire reaches the year mark they lose a lot of their newborn strength, right?" Jasper asked and we all shook our head in agreement. "Maria was intent on having only the strongest of armies so when the year was up then she would have that crop of newborns destroyed and make new ones. I always hated that day but Bella wasn't going to be destroyed like that."

"I worked with her to build her shield." Jasper kept going. "We pushed and tried everything and soon she was able to push it out from just around herself. She could cover others and as we continued to work she could push it further. By the time her year came up then she could cover have the troops without even thinking about it."

"That was why you had to learn how to extend your shield?" I remembered that first conversation in my room. She hadn't sounded happy about knowing how far she could project it and I now understood why.

"It was the only way to save myself." Bella looked up at me. "Maria was dead set that I would be destroyed and if she couldn't do it then she was going to have it done somehow. I had to prove to her that I was worth keeping."

"It worked too." Jasper added. "Maria couldn't destroy her and that only made her hatred grow. But after that she left her alone. We continued like that for more years then I ever want to think of again." I saw the fighting again and I felt the pain and frustration with each vision. "We would talk about leaving but we both knew we never would. Even though we hated it; it was the only life we knew."

"Then one day a friend of mine Peter showed up. He had run a few years before when his mate Charlotte was scheduled to die in the flames." Jasper moved on. "I had let him go and Maria had started to resent me for that and other things. He came back to tell me that he and Charlotte had spent their time in the north and not once came across the fighting that we experience day after day. He asked me to come with them and I debated. I knew Maria was plotting something and if I didn't get Bella out of there she would most likely go for her first but still it was all I knew."

"I told him that I would try to join him and we made a date to meet. I hadn't told Bella in case it didn't work. The last thing I wanted was to get her hopes up if there wasn't a chance. Still I figured that even if I couldn't get out I could send Bella with them and at least she would be safe." He was always protecting my Bella as a father would his daughter. I owned him an apology; I owned them both one. "When the time came I knew that I couldn't stay. I went to Maria and told her we were leaving. I knew that she would be angry but I thought that I could control the situation and her emotions and be able to leave quietly. It didn't work out like that. She went crazy and attacked me. When she realized that she couldn't win she threatened the only thing in this world I cared about."

"She told him that she would kill me." Bella took over for him. "He thought he had controlled her emotions and that was why she stopped attacking but I was outside the tent and had shielded him. I heard her spit my name in venom swearing that she would find us no matter where we went." I pulled her closer. My mind was racing with ways to protect her. This Maria would never, ever lay a hand on her. Not while I lived. I would kill her first.

"I left her screaming in the tent and went to find Bella who had made it back to her tent without my knowing that she had been outside." Jasper nudged her. "We packed up everything and took off. We traveled with Peter and Charlotte for a few years but I had become so down. I hated taking a life and I didn't know there was any other way to survive."

"I felt the same although probably for different reasons." Bella added. "We left them and traveled alone until we met Alice." She looked over at her and smiled. "I had figured that the constant threat of Maria finding us was weighing on Jazzy and that was why he was so down. I had decided that we should go our separate ways. I was packed and ready when he came home with this crazy woman who was talking all kinds of nonsense. I didn't understand but he seemed so much happier. It was like he had let go of all the pain and loneliness and guilt. You saved him and in turn me and for that I will always love you."

Alice looked like she was crying and of course she jumped up and hugged Bella. "Although you could lighten up on the hugs" Bella whimpered.

"Sorry" Alice went back to her seat. "But you never said you love me before. I just got excited and oh Bella I love you too. You are the best person I have ever met. You put up with me even when I know that I'm getting on your nerves and you hardly ever yell at me except when I'm trying to do your makeup. I have always loved you and I will always love you no matter what."

"Thanks Alice" Bella reached over and squeezed her hand.

"So that's basically it." Jasper looked ready to bust. I could only guess that he was feeling Alice's emotions and they were very happy. "We don't want to put your family in danger and with what happened with Bella earlier we can only presume that Maria has found us. We will leave and you won't have to worry about her attacking any of you."

"If you leave I'm going to" I didn't need to hear what my family said. Bella was my mate and if she was going somewhere then I was also. I had no intention of letting her face this alone.

"So am I" Alice jumped in.

"You're not leaving me out of any fight" Emmett stood up. "Especially if someone is coming after my little sister. Family protects family."

"Emmett calm down" Carlisle spoke. "No one is going anywhere."

"We're not?" Bella looked confused.

"Bella" Esme smiled at her. "You and Jasper and Alice are a part of us now. You can't tell us that someone wants you dead and then expect us to do nothing about it."

"As Emmett said, family protects family." Carlisle completed. "You are safer here anyway then running through the forest not knowing where you're going."

"But she might not come alone." Jasper warned and I could see armies marching in his head. "And she's quite vindictive and cunning when it comes to attacking."

"So be it." Emmett was always ready for any type of violence. "And I don't like to brag but my Rosie can match vindictive and cunning with the best of them. Not to mention downright mean."

Jasper, Alice and Bella turned and looked at Rosalie. They didn't know of her past and the men that she had killed. If they thought this Maria could be ruthless they had no idea that they had been living with the champ.

"I can hold my own." Rosalie smiled.

"Wow" Alice's eyes still bugged out. "I didn't see that coming."

"Okay so everything is settled." I pulled Bella closer. "No one is leaving and we are sticking together. We need to talk strategy so that if Maria attacks we will be ready."

"Agreed" Emmett sat back down and he and Jasper dissolved into planning. Emmett looked like a kid in a candy store he was so happy to have someone that he could plan out fights with. Everyone was listening closely but I couldn't stop looking at Bella. She had her head resting on my shoulder and the softest smile on her face.

This was what I had wanted. There were still parts of her past that I didn't know and things of my own that I needed to tell her but we were a team. She had opened up to me, to the family, and let us in.

_By the way Edward_, I heard Bella loud and clear in my mind. _I forgot to tell you that I love you too._

I smiled a content smile and leaned down to press my lips to hers. She was mine and she would stay mine. I would keep her safe and we would spend years getting to know each other.

_Aw_, Emmett interrupted the moment. _Eddie's finally going to get some._

I laughed it off. Emmett could say whatever he wanted. Bella was here, in my arms, she loved me and I was happy. There was nothing that could destroy that.

**AN: Thanksgiving surprise. You guys should know by now that I love to share extra during the holiday and this time I am giving not just one chapter but two :). Wow, I must be feeling great or something. Now here is where you reward me with lots of reviews. I would hate to think that no one liked my Thanksgiving gift :(.**

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	13. Chapter 12: COMING

_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Chapter 12: COMING

**Bella POV**

If you take out the fact that someone is trying to kill me the last few months had been great. Alice had backed off some from her relentless urge to make me over. I guess finding out that I cared about her too had mellowed her out. Carlisle and Esme were quickly becoming the parents I never had. Esme was wonderful to talk to and she had the kindest heart I had ever seen. Jasper and Emmett wrestled constantly. Either just for fun or in preparation for any attacks. Emmett had challenged me once but decided that I fought just as unfairly as Edward because I used my powers and he couldn't touch me. Even Rosalie had been nicer to me. The Denalis had visited a couple of times all though without Tanya which was fine with me. Everyone else had been surprised to find out that none of them knew where she was. They had received a letter from her saying that she would be back soon but they were not happy about the absence. Apparently they were as close as the Cullens and one didn't go off and leave without the others. They all seemed to be worried but I was just happy that she wasn't there to shot daggers at me again.

Then there was Edward. Edward had been perfect. He hardly ever left my side and I had practically moved into the attic. I rarely used my room and Edward had gone out and bought a bed for upstairs. That had garnered a huge wrestling match between him and Emmett but I couldn't tell you what for. All I knew was that Edward came home with the bed and the next thing anyone knew they were out back rolling around. I can only assume it had something to do with Emmett's thoughts and if I knew Emmett those thoughts had either been good natured teasing or over the top sexual implication. Either way Esme was the one that eventually had to go out and break things up.

Yes life was good. We stayed pretty close to the house. Matter of fact no one really left except for Carlisle to go to work. Alice had restricted herself to mail order shopping and that one poor Avon lady that had trudged out here and gotten the sale of a lifetime. Alice had almost pounced on her the minute the car pulled up. She had tried everything and ordered multiples of the same things. I could only hope that make-up and body lotions didn't spoil because Alice had enough to last another fifty years.

So that was our days. Carlisle working, Alice shopping, Emmett and Jasper wrestling, Esme puttering, Rosalie wondering, Edward glued to me, but we were all worrying. No one mentioned Maria but it had been four months. Four months since the supposed attack in the woods and nothing. That wasn't Maria's style. If she had found me she would have sent in the troops, burned down everything, collected the spoils, and went home with tails of conquer and defeat. She never waited; was never cautious. Maybe she was alone in here and didn't have the support that she normally did but even with that she would just go into town create a new army and attack at the first chance she got. So why was she waiting?

I hated this. Hated that I had no idea what was out there. This sitting around all safe and locked up wasn't really my style. I had never been one to rush out into danger or stupidly put myself in harm's way but lately I had been thinking that if I could go out and let her find me then I could possibly spare everyone else.

I knew it would be hard for everyone to accept but just like my human family the Cullens would move on. Alice would help Jasper and everyone would help Edward. They could go back to their normal lives. They could move without looking over their shoulder. I didn't like the fact that I was holding up their plans.

Apparently they had been on the verge of moving to Washington State when we had shown up. They had thought they would stay a little longer to integrate us into the family and then we would all move together but with a crazed revenge hungry vampire after me those plans had been put on the back burner. How fair was that?

I wondered downstairs and was surprised to find no one around. They hadn't mentioned going hunting. Maybe they were in the back watching Emmett and Jasper wrestle again. I shook my head. One of those boys where going to accidently pull of an arm or something if they kept this up. I made my way to the back yard but no one was out there either. I listened but couldn't hear anyone. This did not make me feel any better.

I walked around to the front of the house but again nothing. Where could they all be? I ran back vampire speed into the house and went directly to Edward's piano room but there was nothing and nobody. I hated to do it but I pulled an Alice and yelled for anyone at the top of my lungs and still nothing. My lost heart raced as I ran through the scenarios. Could Maria have gotten in and lured them all out? Could she have sent in troops to attack and I hadn't heard anything? No that one couldn't have happened. Not only did I have vampire hearing but I was use to the sounds of attack. I had spent most of my life with one ear open to hear the tiniest of insurgence. If Maria had attacked here I would have heard it.

Which had to lead to something else. She could have tricked them into leaving? But why wouldn't someone have told me. Jasper or Edward at least should have said something. I looked around the empty living room thinking how now I was a sitting duck. My defenses were down and anyone could attack at any side. I moved over so that my back was against the wall and made my way back to the patio door. I took two steps outside and leapt lightly into the nearby tree. I made my way as high as I could go and still see the house and stopped. I perched myself on the tree next to the bark so that I was well hidden and I waited. If Maria was going to attack then I was going to be ready.

I knew I was being paranoid but I would rather be safe than sorry and dead. I wanted to drop my shield and call out to Edward to see if he would or could answer me but years of training held me still. If someone was out there waiting then that might be the one opportunity that they needed. Right now I couldn't help the others I had to take care of myself and once this was over then I could find them. They just had to hold out. I knew Jasper could do it and I had never met a stronger vampire then Emmett. They would be fine and if I survived finding them would be my top priority.

I sat in that tree for hours watching the house grateful that I don't need sleep. Finally I heard a sound. It was faint but it was a vampire to be sure.

"I told you this was a bad idea." A male voice sounded. There was something familiar about it but he was still too far away for me to place it.

"I think it would have been fun." Another male voice.

"I think it was stupid." This voice was female.

"Not at all" Another female voice. "We just should have planned better is all."

"How much more planning did you want to do?" They were getting closer but I still couldn't make out that voice.

"I don't know." The second female voice sounded. "Whatever would have gotten her there?"

"You need help." The first female voice sounded bored.

"Than…." The voice was cut off.

"Some things wrong" That first familiar voice was back. "It's too quiet."

"You don't think..." This new male voice trailed off.

Everything went quiet after that. They stopped talking and moving. I tensed, closing my eyes and preparing for what needed to be done. There were at least five of them but more could be in the woods. For once I wished we lived closer to the city. I could fight my way through and then blend into the crowds but out here there were just too many places someone could hide. Too many places where I could be running into a trap; running right into Maria.

They started to move again this time spreading out. I could hear the snow crunching lightly. They were good and if I had never fought beside Jasper and Maria I wouldn't have heard them. My conditioning kicked in and I prepared myself to strike. There was a smaller one coming straight in my direction. If I took this one out quietly then I could make my way around to the other female voice I had heard that seemed to be about twenty paces to my right. Once done there I would have to hide again until the other three came back into range. Another tree would work great. When they came to find their fallen comrades I could jump they would be surprised and disoriented. Add in the fact that my shield wouldn't let them touch me and I could move through quickly. All that would be left would be lighting the fire and finding a way out.

I opened my eyes happy with my plan of attack but as I was about to leap I heard another vampire coming up behind the small one.

"No one goes alone." He whispered. The way he said that was so military it made me think of Jazz. I wished I had him with me right now. I had never fought without knowing he had my back covered.

They moved a little further into sight and I pounced. Quickly I had the little one down and my teeth at her throat when I heard it.

"NO BELLA" I looked up to see Edward running towards me as two arms wrapped around my waist. I struggled trying to get free. Edward had come back and I needed to get to him. I let my head fly back as hard as I could and heard a crack when it connected with my captors' nose. I brought my foot up behind me and jabbed it into his crotch to finally get him to let go. As soon as his arms were gone I sprinted across the open space and lunged myself into Edward arms.

"We have to get out of here" I was pulling him toward the front door. "We have to go."

"Bella wait" He was holding me back.

"What is wrong with you?" I questioned. "They are attacking and we have to move." I knew he wasn't use to battle like I was but any idiot knew that you didn't stay where there were people trying to kill you. I saw a movement out the corner of my eye and placed myself in front of Edward letting my shield cover him. I crouched down and growled at the coming assailant.

"Whoa, Bella calm down." Emmett was standing across from me with his arms raised. I quickly expanded my shield to include him glad that I had a few reinforcements. I rose up from my defensive crouch and grabbed Edward's hand rushing us over to stand by Emmett.

"What is going on?" Rosalie appeared next. I sighed. They had found a way to escape and had come back for me. I was beyond grateful but there were still the two attackers out back. I engulfed Rosalie and turned toward the would be killers.

"They've come for us." I whispered to everyone. "I had one down on the patio but the other tried to stop me. I saw Edward and was able to get free but I don't know if we are surrounded or not. I heard five of them so they could be anywhere."

"Bella, love" Edward was speaking in my ear. "That was us."

I turned to him. "What?"

"We were coming back from the woods." He continued to explain. "You must have heard us when we were approaching."

"Then who was attacking me on the patio?"

"I wasn't attacking you I was pulling you off Alice." Jasper limped in with Alice clutched to his side. "I forgot how you can get in a battle kitten."

"Kitten?" Emmett questioned.

"I nicknamed her that years ago." Jasper told him. "Because she is so small and looks so sweet but has the deadliest claws and the worst temper." He motioned down his body to show the broken nose I had given him and the tears to his shirt. "Exhibit A."

"I'm sorry Jazzy" I ran over and hugged him but he stumbled back.

"It's okay but why did you jump on us and what were you doing in the tree?"

"I thought Maria had somehow gotten to you all and was coming after me." I looked around at them all. "I came downstairs and no one was here. Everything seemed too quiet and I know that sound."

"What sound?" Emmett looked confused. "If it was quiet wouldn't there be no sound to hear."

"In battle that is the loudest sound there is." I told him.

"It means someone is about to attack or they already have." Jasper added then looked at me. "Didn't you get the note?"

"What note?" I looked at all of them.

"The note I left telling you to met us in the woods two miles from here." Alice stated.

"I didn't see a note."

"Are you sure you left it Alice?" Rosalie asked her.

"Of course" She moved away from Jasper and walked over to the kitchen counter. Sure enough there was a piece of paper right there.

"You left it in the kitchen?" Edward raised his eyebrows.

"Yes" Alice looked offended. "That's were normal families leave each other notes."

"But we're not normal Alice" Jasper walked over to her. "Do you remember the last time we used the kitchen."

"When that Avon lady was here." Alice said proudly.

"Yes and that was two months ago." Rosalie chimed in. "Really Alice what were you thinking? We don't eat so why would she go in there?"

"I knew we should have just taken her with us." Edward added.

"At least she wouldn't have attacked Alice" Emmett piped up.

"Serves her right for coming up with such a ridiculous plan." Rosalie spoke again.

Alice looked so sad. "I just wanted it to be a surprise." She leaned into Jasper.

"Hey everyone back off" I moved to stand by Alice. I felt sorry that they all were picking on her. I didn't know what this plan was but whatever it was she didn't deserve this. "She made a mistake. It's one mistake in a sea of millions. Lighten up."

Edward and Jasper smiled at me. "She's right" Edward said coming to stand beside me. "We're sorry Alice."

"It's okay." She smiled and hugged me but it wasn't one of the breath stealing hugs she was famous for. "Thanks Bella."

"No problem pixie" I ruffled her hair.

"Hey" She tossed her head so that I couldn't touch her and smiled.

Edward wrapped his arms around me and whispered in my ear. "I'm just glad you're safe."

"Yeah" Jasper agreed. "When we first walked up and there was no movement I got really worried. I guess the same thoughts went through my head too. I thought Maria had attacked and you had been here all alone."

"I wouldn't worry." Emmett laughed. "From the look of you I would say she's got some pretty wicked moves. You look like she firmly kicked your ass."

Everyone laughed including Jasper. "Trust me you don't want to see this one really fight or really angry." Jasper pointed at me. "It's not just her shield that kept her alive."

"But we saw her angry when she attacked Edward, right?" Emmett looked slightly alarmed.

Jasper and I exchanged glances and chuckled. "That was moderately annoyed." Jasper told him. "If she had been angry I wouldn't have been able to get her off him."

Everyone's eyes focused on me. "Sorry" I smiled. "I try to control it."

"Wow" Emmett laughed again. "Glad you're on our side."

"Definitely" Jasper laughed with him.

"Still do you really think you could have taken on five vampires and been okay?" Edwards's voice was clouded in worry.

"I think I could have handled myself" I shrugged.

"Handled herself?" Jasper laughed louder this time. "Edward, five vamps would have been nothing for Bella. I've seen her take down twenty in less time than it took us to hike to that field Alice found."

"Jazzy could you please stop scaring them." I was smiling but it was mainly so that everyone would stop looking at me like I had suddenly grown another head. I hated talking about those days. I didn't like to think about the person I had been and all Jasper was doing was drudging up memories that were best kept in the past.

Jasper looked at the faces staring at us and apologized. "Sorry Bells" He leaned toward me. "Sometimes I forget everyone hasn't had the crazy past we have."

"Let's change the subject." I suggested.

"Agreed" Edward took my hand and pulled me into the living room and onto the sofa. The rest of the family followed suit. Emmett turned on the television and flipped through channels until he found what he deemed a theme movie. I had never seen "The Immortal Sergeant" before but I had to give it to him, the title was perfect.

"I was a Major thank you very much." Jasper puffed. He always loved his command. Too bad he was changed; he probably would have made it to general.

"But you were still immortal" Emmett teased back.

"Not when I was a Major." Jasper hated when people didn't take the army seriously.

"Hey guys" I interrupted. "What about we say that we have had enough fighting for one day and watch the movie."

"Fine" Jasper mumbled.

I turned my attention to the movie but something was still nagging at me. "Alice"

"Yeah?"

"What were you guys doing out in the wood anyway?" It seemed strange that with everything going on they would go hangout where someone could come catch them. Jasper would never have gone for that but he did so it must have been important.

"Well" Alice hesitated while everyone looked at her. "We were throwing you a party."

"A party?" I had to have heard her wrong. "Why would you be throwing me a party?"

She looked at Jasper and buried her head in his shoulder. "Because I inadvertently mentioned that yesterday was the day that I changed you and Alice thought it would be a good idea to throw you a birthday party." He explained.

I looked at the back of her head and wondered what she had been thinking. Did I look like the kind of girl that would be excited by that? Even human I had hated parties.

"There was cake and everything" Her voice floated from Jaspers arm.

"Alice" I closed my eyes. "We don't even eat."

"I know but a party isn't a party without cake." She looked over at me. "Are you angry?" She asked slowly.

Everyone stopped expectantly and stared. I was so going to have to really kick Jasper's ass for this. I smiled again and leaned onto Edward. "Let's just watch the movie."

**AN: I hope you enjoyed these little treats. Be sure to check the website for a sneak peak at what's to come Wednesday. Talk soon everyone and I hope you all had a great holiday.**

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	14. Chapter 13: RUNNING

_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Chapter 13: RUNNING

**Jasper POV **

"Jasper can we talk?" The nervousness coming off Edward was unbelievable. I didn't know what he wanted to say but whatever it was had him on edge which in turn had me on edge.

"Only if you calm down." I closed my eyes hoping to calm him so that I could get a better hold on my own emotions.

"Sorry, I guess I'm still not use to living with an empath." He moved to sit in the only real chair left in this room.

Alice had done a number in here. Everything that wasn't nailed down was pink or some form of pink. I hadn't known that there were different shades of colors until I met her. Three years ago I simply thought there was pink, red, blue and the normal others. Now I know that there are cinnamon and ocean foam and blush. Why you need new names for the same old thing is beyond me.

"It certainly looks different in here." Edward was looking around with something between disgust and amusement etched on his face.

"Alice loves her pink." I told him.

"I can see" His eyes kept darting around. "Did you get to chose anything in here?"

I pointed to a desk that housed my civil war books and a few old mementos from both my human and beginning vampire lives. "That was about it."

"Wow" He smiled. "I wonder will it be the same when Be…" He trailed off still not facing me.

I let him continue to look trying not to push him. I could tell that he wanted to talk about Bella but I didn't know what exactly he wanted to discuss. He could have wanted to talk about their relationship or the threat to her or just general Bella knowledge. In that way I envied him. I loved Alice. She was everything to me but there were times when it would have been nice to have someone that I could go to for advice. Someone that knew her as I did and could give me advice or explain things that might be over my head. Things like her compulsive shopping or why I was living in a pink room.

I knew I couldn't read his mind but his emotions were so all over the place that I found myself worrying. What if something more than I knew was going on? Had something happened with Bella that I didn't know about? I knew that they had gone hunting yesterday, what if they had ran into something or someone.

"Edward" I needed to know. "Is everything alright?"

"Um" He stammered. "Not really"

My breathing sped up. "Why? What happen? Is Bella okay?" I asked in rapid succession.

"I don't know" He finally looked at me.

"What do you mean?"

"Well everything had been going great." He started. "That was until Alice's surprise party. Since then Bella has seemed so distant. Like she is pulling away from me and I was wondering if she has been that way with you too."

I stopped and thought back over the last three months since that failed party. Had Bella been acting different? We hadn't talked as much but I had assumed that was because she was talking to Edward. I missed our walks but I had assumed she was with Edward. Matter of fact, I hadn't seen her randomly around the house a lot either but once again I had assumed it was because of Edward. But now that I think about it a lot of the time that I had thought she was with Edward he had been there. In the room somewhere or right outside. I could remember one time when she had walked outside and I had thought she was meeting Edward but I could hear him playing in his music room.

This could not be good. I knew Bella and if she was being solitary there was only one reason why. I stood up ready to track her down. "Do you know where she is now?"

Edward stood too. "No, why?"

"Because she's planning to run." I told him.

"What?" His eyes hung out of his head.

How did you explain a lifetime of knowledge in a few minutes? "It's classic Bella." I started. "She is impatient as hell and she has a tendency to think everything is her fault. If I know her she is thinking how she has put us all in danger but if she leaves then we can go on with our lives without worrying about Maria."

"But that's stupid." He cried. "Doesn't she know that I love her? That my life was nothing before she came or that it wouldn't be worth anything if she was gone?"

"Probably" I felt for him. I could feel his frustration and sadness and I echoed it. I wouldn't be the same if something happened to Bella. Not because of the guilt I had once felt or even the commitment that I had made to protect her but because she was part of me. She really was family.

I thought about all the other Cullens and Alice, who would be beside herself. She and Bella had finally started to really bond and she would be heartbroken if she lost her. Hell so would I; so would Edward. Didn't she see that? I knew she was trying to protect us and if the situation was reversed I would more than likely do the same thing. But Maria hated us both. She wouldn't just stop at destroying Bella. She would come for me too.

"When was the last time you saw her?" I asked him. Maybe if he told me what he knew then we could find her and talk some sense into her before she ran off and got herself killed. "What did she say?"

"It was this morning" He told me. "We went for a walk around Esme's garden and she was talking like normal."

"What did she say?"

"That she loved me no matter what." He shrugged and I knew that the casual move was just to hide the fact that he was dying inside at the thought of losing Bella. "She mentioned you and Alice and how important you two were and how glad she was that you had someone. She told me how glad she was to have met the family and that she loved every one of them."

He hadn't seen it but it was as clear to me as if she had come in with her coat on and her bag under her arm. "She had been saying goodbye." I shook my head. Bella would have dropped all those things into the conversation just like she was mentioning the weather. Of course Edward wouldn't have noticed. She would look up at him and all he would see was her opening up and miss that she what she was planning.

I ran out the room to hers with Edward on my heels and threw open the door. I walked over to her closet and looked inside. "Alice" I called. If anything was missing she would know with a quick glance. I looked around the room as I waited and stopped at the stand by her bed.

"What's up Jasper?" Alice asked walking into the room. I wanted to tell her but it was too late. I didn't need her confirmation. I walked over to the nightstand and ran my hand over the vacate area. Bella had already gone.

"She's left" I whispered.

"What?" I could hear Alice walk further into the room as she spoke but I couldn't turn around. How could she have done this? How could she leave me? "Who's left?"

"Bella" I felt the pain rock through Edward at that one word but I could help. My own pain was over shadowing his. I knelt before the empty spot willing her house to be there but it wasn't.

"No" Alice moved closer to me. "She wouldn't do that. Not with Maria after her. Not with Edward here. There has to be some mistake."

I ran my hand across the top again remembering when we had broken into her old house. It had been five years since I had turned her and we were finally back in Texas. She had wanted to just see the house and I felt I owned it to her. We had snuck away from camp and made our way back. I had been hit with grief and guilt as soon as the field had come into sight but Bella had kept her cool. She was surprised to see that it looked like the farm was still own by her family. She reasoned that one of her brothers must have taken over after her disappearance. I don't remember how she had talked me into breaking in so she could see her old room but when next I looked up we were there.

It was strange how it looked as though she had never left it. Like she had lived in it those five years she had been with me. We had hid in the closet when someone, I believe she had said it was her sister-in-law, had walked by and had both been impressed that we hadn't given in to the bloodlust and taken her. We were about to leave before pushing our luck when her eyes feel on this small, hand-carved, wooden house. She picked it up with such reverence and held it close. She told me her father had made it for her. That had been the first and only time she had talked about him until that night a number of months ago. She said that he gave it to her so that she would always know home. There was another noise and we had slipped back out the window running all the way back to camp. Bella had clutched that house to her heart as if it was the most precious thing in the world. Ever since then that miniature had stayed beside her bed or at least someplace close no matter where we went.

I leapt up. If she was crazy enough to run then I was crazy enough to follow her. She couldn't have gotten far if Edward had been with her this morning. I ran down the stairs hoping that everyone was there and was rewarded.

"Everyone I need to know the last time anyone saw Bella." I told the room at large. If I could pinpoint when exactly she left then maybe I could get a better idea of where to look.

"I saw her sitting on the swing outside about an hour ago" Rosalie shrugged.

"Why?" Emmett asked looking tense. I didn't know if he was picking up on my emotions or if the look on my face was giving away my concern. "What's going on?"

"Bella ran away" I shared.

"What?" I heard Esme's hurt voice behind me. "Why?"

"She's trying to protect us." Alice guessed. "It's what I would do." She smiled at me. "Don't worry we will find her."

"Are you sure she's gone?" Esme asked.

"Yes" I looked around. "She took her wooden house."

"Her what?" Rosalie questioned.

"She has a wooden house that she keeps with her that her father made for her years before I met her." I explained. "She doesn't go anywhere without it."

"I see" Edward spoke for the first time since we had gone into Bella's room. "That was how you knew."

"Maybe it's in Edward's room." Rosalie tried.

"No" Edward told her. "I've never seen it."

"So she really left" Esme sounded as if she was about to cry. "We have to get her back."

"Absolutely" Emmett stood pulling Rosalie up with him. "Where should we look?"

I looked around. Everyone standing there was looking like they were ready to take on the devil himself if it would bring Bella back. The concern I was feeling had nothing to do with me and everything to do with the love they felt for Bella. This was so much more than an army of soldiers about to sacrifice themselves for the advancement of one. This was a band of hearts giving everything they were to help; to bring back one of their own. I was so lucky and so was Bella.

"She couldn't have gotten far." I put myself in Bella's shoes. She wouldn't have left without planning and Edward had mentioned that she hadn't seemed right for awhile so that had to mean that she had a roadmap. If Rosalie saw her on the swing and then she left that meant that she didn't take any clothes.

"Alice I need you to go upstairs and see if any of Bella's clothes are missing?" No sooner had I finished Alice was gone. She came back moments later.

"A few things but not enough that anyone glancing at it would notice." She informed.

"Okay so she had to have had them stashed somewhere." I reasoned out loud. "If that were the case then she would have to pick up her things before heading out. If she was running vampire speed and she had them close then she could already be on her way to town."

"Town?" Emmett interrupted. "If the goal was for no one to find her wouldn't the woods be a better place to hide. I mean Carlisle works in town."

"True but it's the best place to blend in." Rosalie answered for me. "In the woods we could track her smell but in town there are so many humans that she could get muddled. It would be the equivalent of a needle in a haystack."

"Exactly" I was impressed by the way she had grasped what Bella was thinking. She was good. "We should call Carlisle as ask him to keep a look out but I doubt she would go anywhere that she thought he would be." I thought long and hard trying to remember if there was another town near here that Bella might run for.

"About an hour from here." Edward answered my thoughts.

"We need to cover that too." I looked over at him. "Maybe send Rosalie and Emmett there since she drives the fastest other than you and I'm going to need you in the woods."

"I agree" Edward came to stand beside me.

"What are you two talking about?" Emmett questioned sounding frustrated. He hated when we had conversations in Edward's head.

"I wondered if there was another town nearby and Edward answered." I let him in on the plan. "You and Rosalie need to cover that one and we'll have Carlisle look in his since he's already there. That way both areas are covered. Alice and Esme can stay here in case she comes back and Edward and I will comb through the woods trying to pick up her scent to track which way she went. Maybe we can catch her before she's gone too far and gotten herself in trouble."

"Why do you two get to hunt in the forest?" Emmett looked between Edward and me.

"Because her scent is strongest to us." I told him.

"And why are Esme and I stuck at the house?" Alice whined. "She's my best friend and I should be out there looking for her."

"Alice we need someone here in case she comes home." I rubbed her shoulders. "Besides we need to stay in groups of two in case there is trouble." I kissed her forehead.

"Fine" She hugged me. "But be careful and remember I'll be watching."

"I will" I hugged her closer pulling hope from the feelings that she inspired in me. I then turned to Edward and noticed how lost he looked. I pushed my new found hope out toward him. "Ready to find her?"

The lost look vanished from his eyes and a look of complete determination filled them. "Without a doubt."

We walked toward the back door but I stopped quickly and looked back. "I meant it too. No one go anywhere alone. I don't think Maria is out there but if she is then she isn't alone and none of you are ready for her. I'm sorry about that but this isn't a woman this a demon and she won't think twice about killing all of us."

"Bring it on" Emmett punched his two hands together. "About time I got a real fight in."

He thought he was so ready to go into battle. If he only knew the things I had seen; the things I had done, he wouldn't be so anxious. "Just be careful" I turned to leave again but stopped. "And thank you. All of you." I looked at each of them; my new family. "You didn't have to accept us and you certainly don't have to risk yourselves and all you have here to help me find Bella but you are and for that I can't tell you how much I appreciate it."

"We're family Jasper" Esme smiled at me.

"That means we kick anyone's ass that tries to destroy that." Emmett pumped his fist in the air.

"Or at the very least we go out looking for the stupid one that's lost." Rosalie said while pulling Emmett's arm back down.

"And we bring her back and kick her ass for being that retarded." Alice finished up.

I laughed. "Well at any rate I just wanted you to know how much this means to me."

"That we already know." Rosalie rolled her eyes. "One of these days you are really going to have to learn how to stop sending out those emotions."

I had forgotten about that that quickly. Of course they knew how I felt. I was sharing it with them right now. I winked at Rosalie and sent out a wave of happiness and hope. We would find Bella. We would find her and bring her back and then I would tie her to her bed if I had to. I would lock her in the basement if it would keep her safe. There would be no more of this sacrificing herself for the greater good crap. She would finally understand what she meant to me, to this family, if I had to browbeat her with it every day. I was going to make sure that she never did anything this crazy again.

"Yes we will" He agreed with my thoughts. "Whatever it takes."

I looked at Edward and saw my thoughts reflected in him. He really loved her and for that I was glad. Now all we had to do was get her back so that she could see that too.

"Ready?" I asked.

"More than ready" He answered and with one final look back we ran out to find the love of both our hearts.

**AN: Happy Wednesday everyone. I almost forgot what today was after the Thanksgiving post. If someone hadn't mentioned late last night that it was Tuesday I might have been a day late posting. Anyway I made it and this won't be very long as I am getting a cold and also very hungry. So enjoy and I will see you next week.**

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	15. Chapter 14: ACCIDENTALLY

_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Chapter 14: ACCIDENTALLY

**Bella POV**

What the hell had I been thinking? I stupidly had thought that if I left the Cullen's then everything would be fine. I had been planning things for months now. I had slowly taken clothing out when we went hunting and little trinkets when I was out walking. Nothing big so that they would notice but just enough to get by. I had everything down to the day and the hour. I had said my goodbyes all though I was hopeful that they wouldn't realize it until I had left and taken off.

I knew it was a chance but I thought that if I could get far enough away before Maria caught me then I would be fine and so would Jasper and Edward. They would mourn for me but eventually get on with their lives. Plus I figured that if I could get Maria alone maybe I could talk to her. I had heard enough rumors to know that her armies and her land had all but disappeared after Jasper and I left. If I could get her to see reason then I could possibly save my life by agreeing to go back and help her take back her land. It was a long shot but if there was one thing about Maria I knew it was that she was greedy. There was nothing she liked better than to feel as if she controlled everything.

What I hadn't counted on was that blonde cow that jumped me from behind. If I hadn't been so concerned that one of the Cullens might have followed me then I would have had my shield up higher. She wouldn't have been able to touch me but by the time I saw that it wasn't a Cullen but Tanya it was too late. She had me tied up and was leading me through the forest. I tried to repel her but she wasn't touching me. Too bad my shield didn't move people. If I expanded toward her now the only thing I would end up doing is protecting her and that was the last thing I wanted. I was now hoping that Edward or Jasper did follow me. That way Edward could hear her and Jasper could feel her emotions.

I again thought about dropping the shield all together to see if Edward could hear me. Tanya wasn't paying any attention but what if she wasn't alone out here. The other Denali's had seemed nice enough and they had visited a few times since last I had seen her but they hadn't mentioned that she had gone off the deep in. They had told us she was missing. They didn't tell us that she was planning on kidnapping me, but maybe they hadn't known. It wasn't like I had gone around broadcasting that I was planning to leave before I did. Maybe we had more in common than just wanting Edward, but unlike her I had him. At least I did until I left.

I wondered if that was what all this was about. Could she really care about him that much that she would kidnap me to get him? And to what end? Was she going to destroy me, kill me, in hope that he would turn to her? After spending time with him I knew that wouldn't be the case. We had talked about Tanya and he had explained their whole relationship to me. She was a cold woman who had used men and seduced them into her bed simply for her own pleasure and once spent had devoured them.

The fact that she had set her sights on Edward was not surprising to me even if it was to him. He was a kind and gentle man with wonderful standards and a loving heart. Any woman would be lucky to be the one that held it. Which is why the fact that he turned her down is also not surprising to me although she seemed to be having a hard time excepting it. He would never go for someone who viewed love and relationships the way that she did. As I thought of it, she would have suited Clement way better than Edward.

He had been as she was. He had seen love as something you use. Something that lead to a means of pleasure and nothing more. He hadn't loved me but then I hadn't loved him so in the end everything had worked out fine. I had found a man that could love me. A man that could win my heart and fill it with joy and contentment and love. It was too bad that at the moment I was being drug away from him into my apparent death.

She stopped for a minute and looked back at me smiling. "Don't worry, we're almost there."

I wanted to ask where but that seemed ill advised. I had never been in a captured scenario before but Maria had drilled into us that if we were ever taken we were to say nothing and if at all feasible kill each other before we could be made to join another's army. Right now the killing myself option sounded the lamest but the say nothing made more sense. Why antagonize someone already set to kill you? What sense would that make? But seeing as this whole running away thing seemed to have stopped making sense hours ago I thought what the hell.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see" She laughed a sicken laugh and started moving again.

Well that helped a lot. I still didn't know where we were going and now she was laughing at me which only served to make me mad. I knew I needed to control my temper at least until I knew what I was in for but she was really starting to get on my nerves. Yet if I lost control now out in no were land I might not be able to find my way back or even continue with my original plan. Either way I could find myself stuck with nothing to do but sit and hope that someone finds me.

Although thinking about it I realized that was what I was doing. With the exception of sitting I was just hoping that someone found me. I could try to get angry. Try to let go of my temper but there was no guarantees that it would work. Matter of fact I had only been able to tap into that power once and ninety years later I still wasn't sure how I had done it. That side of myself had scared me way too much to try to understand. I closed my eyes letting my mind travel back to that moment determined to find the trigger this time; determined to save myself.

We had been fighting an unbearably large and fierce army lead by a man that was Maria's equal in every way. He was ruthless, cunning, and at one point had been her second in command. He knew how she thought, how she trained, how she fought and it looked as if we were all going to die. Jasper had done everything he could to change out techniques but after fighting against these same vampires for over two months we were depleted and they had learned his maneuvers too.

I was up again three men half Emmett's size but twice his aggression. They were moving around me testing my shield but it held swiftly but I had needed to draw more from it to ward them off which left more than half of our army uncovered. I was draining fast. It had been months since I had feed and my strength, and that of my shield, was weakening. I was so focused on them that I wasn't paying any attention to those around me.

Out of nowhere I heard a scream that pierced my heart. I turned toward it to find our main opponent had Jasper in a death grip. He was pulling at his right arm and his left was hanging disjointed. I knew he wouldn't last long. I jumped on the one facing me and brought my teeth to his neck not concerned with civility. Jasper was in trouble and I needed to get to him. Once the first was taken care of I rounded on the next pulling at him until he was down when I looked up the third had disappeared. I didn't stop to search for him but took off headed to defend Jasper. I forced out my shield but knew that it at my current strength it wouldn't reach him. I jumped over others fighting and dismembered any that got in my way. It took me less than a minute to get to him. I climbed onto the bastards back and pulled him away from Jasper. He dropped him and turn toward me.

My shield was hanging by a thread. I hadn't thought either of us were making out of this battle alive. I dropped down beside Jasper and pushed with everything that I was. Red blurred my eyesight and fire grew in my lungs. Angry did not begin to describe the hatred and death that I was feeling. I faintly heard Jasper's shocked voice whisper my name. At the time I remember thinking that I finally had him covered. It wasn't until I saw everyone, both his troops and ours, backing up that I looked up to see it. There was a ball of fire growing above us. It stretched almost the length of the field that we were standing in. I felt Jasper touch my arm but I was beyond any calming affect that he could ever hope to have on me.

I heard him scream a deafening no before my eyes focused in on the man that had thought to harm my family. The one reason we had been fighting this long. The one person that I wanted to burn and without thinking the flames rained down as if thunder from Heaven. Not only was he destroyed but the entire forest went up in flames. Our side had to run to keep from burning as well. But I stood my ground and Jasper stayed with me, his hand on my arm trying to calm me. The flames grew around us but didn't we didn't feel them.

For five days we stayed in that field and for each of those days Jasper spoke soothingly to me as if I was a newborn baby. He whispered words of his devotion and reminded me that everyone was okay but my body and mind wouldn't calm down. Slowly I began to come to myself. I could hear Jasper louder and I could feel his presence flowing through me. Hours later I had pulled the flames back but there was nothing left. No trees, no grass, not even the broken bones of our enemies. There was nothing. I had dry sobbed for months. Maria had thought that it was amazing. That I had finally found away to make myself useful. In her eyes this was a good thing. In mine it had been the worst possible discover.

I opened my eyes and looked at the woman dragging me away. How could I justify bringing down that kind of destruction on her? Yes, I wanted to live but at what cost. I had been willing to sacrifice myself to save my family; to save the only man I ever loved. Shouldn't I be will to do the same to save who I am; who I had become?

I wasn't the same person that I had been all those years ago. That one act had nearly shattered me and I didn't have the conscious that I have now. That had been the catalyst for change. I know it had taken almost a century to leave and find a new way to survive that didn't require the lost of innocent life, but that moment had been the beginning of the search. That was when I had hated what I had become and wished that Jasper had just killed me instead of turning me into something that could eradicate a whole forest just from her anger. That was when I had prayed that we could run and find anything that would be better than the existence we seemed doomed to have. Could I really go back to what I been before that moment when I finally had everything that I had prayed to find?

I couldn't. So whatever was to happen it was then I would try to believe that was what was to happen. I kept my eyes open searching for something, anything, which could assure me that my life would be spared.

"You can give it up" Her voice resounded in my ears.

"Excuse me?"

"You will never figure out where we are and they will never find you." I could hear the smirk in her voice. "I had a little help in coming up with my plan unlike you."

I felt the anger rising up but I pushed it back down. She would not beat me. "They will come for me." I told her.

"I don't doubt it." She stopped to look at me. "But they will be wasting their time and eventually they will give up. Edward will move on. Trust me, I know him." She gave me a look that I assumed was supposed to make me believe there was something between them.

"They won't give up" I smiled back at her. "Trust me, I know Jasper."

She laughed at that. "That reminds me, now that we are out here with all this time," she continued walking. "What is the deal with the two of you? I would have guessed that you were together but his lust and passion was directed toward that tiny little annoying girl. I don't get it."

I wanted to defend Alice but I had her talking and it was possible she might let something slip, like how I now knew she wasn't alone in this. "She is his mate. I am more of a sister or daughter considering he changed me."

"I see" She didn't stop. "That makes more sense." She tossed me a look over her shoulder and continued. "I tried to get a read on you during that get together we had but it was really hard and then out in the woods later that night when you were with him but I couldn't feel anything."

So it had been her not Maria trying to penetrate my shield. All this time we had been preparing for Maria's attack and sitting on pins and needles and it had been this stupid whore. What were the odds? "You're an empath? Like Jasper?"

"No, I can't read all emotions just those that center around the…shall we say physical aspects of love." She winked at me.

"I see" It figured. Of course being a succubus and able to seduce men she would need to be able to sense those emotions.

"Yeah it can come in real handy sometimes."

"Can you also manipulate them?" If she could, how had Edward resisted?

"Within men" She was a fountain of information right now.

"Yet Edward turned you down?"

She stopped and reached for me but I was prepared this time. Her hand slammed into my shield and she pulled back. "She warned me about your shield. Said I would do well not to get you angry either." She didn't look at all surprised and I now knew exactly who her partner was. "But you would do well not to get me angry." She pulled on the rope and I tripped. "I'm the one pulling the strings now." With that she started walking again.

I picked up my pace to keep up with her. I didn't see the need to talk to her anymore considering that excluding where we were going she had basically told me all I needed to know. But there was one thing that I couldn't let rest. "You didn't answer my question."

"I'm not telling you were we are going."

"Not that one" She was really slow.

"Then which question are you referring to" I could hear the agitation in her voice. This was good. She might slip again.

"Edward, he turned you down?" I taunted. "He resisted?"

"It wasn't that he resisted as much as the fact that he is a real man. He can't be manipulated." She shrugged. "No matter. Now that I know that he can feel passion, lust, and excitement all I need to do is channel him in the right direction."

She had looked at me when she said that and it finally dawned on me. "You felt his emotions for me?" Edward felt passion for me? But he had always been so gentlemanly. He had never once gone any further than was socially acceptable but thanks to Tanya I knew that he wanted to. I would have kissed her if I didn't loath her so.

"Don't act like you don't know it." She turned. "His eyes lust over every time he looks at you. I have been watching you two for months now and every since caress or look or whispered word wrecks of passion and lust and…and"

"Love?" I pushed. "You can say it. He loves me. Me, not you but me." I laughed at her. "Do you really think that kidnapping me and making him think that I am never coming back is going to change that?" I didn't want to let her know that she had already told me my fate. "That is spoken by someone that has never experienced love. Edward will love me until the end of the world as I will love him. There is nothing you could ever do to destroy that."

I had seen evil before but the look that came over her face was worst than any I had ever witnessed. "We'll see" she pulled me harder this time. "Come on we're going to be late and we still have to cross the border into Canada."

I smiled internally. She had given me all I needed. I knew that she was leading me into another country; I knew that she was handing me over to Maria, and I knew that Edward wanted me. Everything would be alright. Sure I was out in the middle of Alaska with no way of reaching Jasper or Edward or anyone else and I was on my way to a sadistic madwoman determined to destroy me, but I knew that they would come. Edward loved me and Jasper loved me and whether they brought the whole Cullen clan or not, they would come. Now all I had to do was make sure they could find me. Good thing I thought of that a while ago.

**AN: Like I said before I hope that you are enjoying the story. We don't have that much more left and as always I am feeling a little blue about that. I also have been working on two other stories but I'm not sure which might work. I am thinking about posting the first chapter of each on my website and letting you all read them and then do a poll to see which you would like to read. If I do it won't be until next week. I will keep you posted. Also if you are going to the website to check out the previews then could you let me know in your review.**

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	16. Chapter 15: HUNT

_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Chapter 15: HUNT

**Edward POV**

Damn it, I ran a frustrated hand through my hair. We had looked everywhere. We had looked through the forest by the house, the field that we used for baseball, the area that we hunted in, and around the Denali's. There was nothing. No sign of Bella anywhere. I was anxious and Jasper was upset.

_Bella knows better than this_, had been running on repeat just about the whole time we had been out here_. I swear I'm going to kill her when I find her._

He wouldn't be alone. How could she have done this? I had told her so many times that I loved her, that I would do anything for her, to protect her, and she had left without a word. She had run off to find Maria and for what? So that I would be safe; so that I wouldn't have to fight. Didn't she know that I would fight anyone to keep her? She had become my world. Even if she somehow had found Maria and convinced her to leave us alone that wouldn't be the end of it. I wouldn't stop until she was back with me or I was with her.

I hated to think it but if for some reason she had sacrificed herself I would do the same. I had finally found love and I wouldn't spend eternity remembering what I had and how I had lost it. I would somehow find a way to be with her. I didn't think Emmett would do it and I knew Carlisle wouldn't but maybe Jasper would understand. We hadn't spent as much time together and he had seen battle and love. Not only seen it but known what it was like to live a lifetime without it. Even if he didn't help maybe he could direct me in the direction of someone who would.

No, my mind screamed back at me. Bella would be fine. We just had to find her. I looked around again hoping that I had missed something; anything. We had broaden our search twenty minutes ago. We were further out than we normally go by about forty miles but at this point we had nothing more to lose. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply but still there was nothing.

"Should we go out further?" I asked Jasper.

"I don't know" He was shaking his head. "Everything I know military wise and Bella wise tells me that we are already out further than she would have gone. " He motioned around. "This is too deep. The trees here are way too plush. It would be far too easy for someone to get close to her here and she knows that but at the same time she should have known to stay at home so I'm at a loss."

I knew what he meant. This seemed wrong somehow and not just because Bella shouldn't have left. It was like we had been lead in the wrong direction. I wasn't the best tracker but I knew enough to know that the scent we first picked up of Bella should been getting stronger not weaker if we were headed correctly.

"Something's wrong" I spoke out loud.

"What is it?" Jasper's head shot up.

"I don't know yet." I couldn't figure it out but I knew something was wrong. I sprinted back a hundred yards and stopped. Closing my eyes again I concentrated on all that I could remember about Bella I stopped breathing and let those memories wash through my senses.

"Edward, what is it?" Jasper ran up behind me.

I didn't answer him. I continued to focus on Bella. I thought about the way she smelled when she just took a shower and how she smelled when she hunted. I put every ounce into those memories and when I was sure I had her I opened my lungs and breathed as deeply as possible. I stood there as the forest came up to meet me. The animals held no appeal at the moment I was honed in on one scent and it came to me lightly.

"This way" I turned and headed out north in the opposite direction from where we had been going. Twenty miles in I saw it; a bag. I walked over bending down and opening it up to find Bella's things folded neatly inside. I stood dropping it in front of Jasper.

"We were set up." I told him. It was all starting to make sense now.

"How do you know?" He was looking at the things. "We already knew that Bella had snuck her things out of the house. Perhaps this is a good thing. We found her bag before she got here and now we can wait."

I shook my head. "Don't you see Jazz, you said it yourself. Bella wouldn't be out here." I reminded him. "Think about when we found her scent after leaving the house. It was headed toward the field but about half way there we picked it up in another direction and decided to follow it because it was stronger."

_Okay_, I assumed he was sick of talking out loud.

"We followed it and it led us here but as we followed the scent got weaker." I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was on board now.

_Why would it get weaker if we were on her trail_, he questioned. _It would stay the same or get stronger._

"Exactly" I couldn't believe the time we had wasted. "Look at it logically. We already know Maria was stalking Bella and that she was in the forest that night you two were out there. If Bella was sneaking things out she would have seen her and she would have seen where she hide them."

_So it would be nothing for her to pick them up and put them somewhere to leave the scent_, he finished my thought.

"I would bet that if we traced our steps back we would find some of her clothing across half the forest just not close to the path that we were on." I voiced my concern. "We wasted all this time and now she could be anywhere."

_Damn_, Jasper was just as frustrated as I was. _What was she thinking?_ He looked around as if a clue would magically appear. _I suppose the only thing to do is to head back and see if we can pick up the scent again. See if any of the others have any news._

"I guess but I hate the thought of starting all over."

_So do I_, he reached down and picked up Bella's bag. Looking in he pulled out a small wooden house. It looked old and fragile and he handled it with so much care that I knew it had to be important.

"I've known her my whole life" He spoke to me but his eyes never left the house. "Or at least this whole life."

"I know"

"She kept me sane." He stroked the roof and I could swear that he would be crying if he could. "I never would have made it if she hadn't been there. Maria was so….there aren't words strong enough to describe her. I hated everything that we were doing but Bella" He paused and he looked far away. "She always had a smile on her face. Always had a quick comeback or a snappy comment guaranteed to put me in my place."

I could see it as he spoke. I saw her laughing and Jasper smiling. I saw Bella jumping on his back and screaming in his ear she was going to get him. I saw her running and calling him cowboy and telling him how he would never catch her.

I smiled also. That was Bella, my Bella, and we had to get her back. As I stood there looking at Jasper I knew that I wasn't the only one that needed her. She was to him what Carlisle was to me. She was his guide. She was the one that he measured himself against. That person that you held yourself up to hoping that they approved. He would be as lost without her as I would.

"We'll get her back Jasper" I placed my hand on his back for the first time feeling that brotherly bond with him. "We will"

_I know_, his thought whispered.

"But we can't do it if we just stand here." I pulled him back to the present.

"You're right." I placed the house carefully back in the bag and zipped it up. Flinging it over his shoulder he took off running and I was right behind him.

We were headed back home and I was eager to hear what they others had found. There had to be a trace of Bella somewhere. She had to have bought a ticket or stopped in a shop or someone had to have seen her moving through town.

We were both still looking for Bella's scent when we both stopped and looked the same way. It wasn't Bella but the scent was familiar all the same. I looked at Jasper and was taken aback by the look of murderous rage that came over his face.

_Son of a bitch_, I had never really heard Jasper swear before but I could only assume that he was picking up Maria's scent. But why would Maria's scent seem familiar to me? I knew it couldn't be Bella. Not only because of Jasper's reaction but also because I would have known it.

"Maria?" I questioned already knowing his answer.

_Yes but not alone and not with Bella_, He answered in his thoughts.

"We have to go get the others then" I hated wasting more time but if Maria had her army with her I wanted as many people as we could with us.

_There isn't time_, He dropped Bella's bag and pushed it off into the bushes to hide it. _We have to go._

"But if she has her army?"

_Don't worry_, he assured me moving further down the new path. _Alice will see. I left the bag so she will be sure this is the path we took._

Alice, of course. I had forgotten that she would see every decision that we made. She would be able to track us and lead the family to help. I took off behind Jasper. I noticed that he was moving slower than before. His eyes were moving faster than his body though. It took a second to realize that he was scanning the area.

"What are you looking for?" I asked. He held his finger up to his lips and I knew that he wanted us to be as quiet as possible from here on out.

_Anything_, he answered. _If I know Bella she would have found a way to leave something to let us know that we were on the right track. That's how she was trained._

I raised my eyebrows at the last statement. _Sometimes_ _Maria would let soldiers get taken hostage so that we could follow their trail back to the enemy camp. Then we would wait them out and attack. We were all trained on how to leave anything as a tracking tool just in case but I would never let Bella be one of the ones sent._

"What would happen to those that were taken?" I whispered as quietly as I could.

_They would either kill each other or be killed by the other troops_, he spoke casually about the time but I could tell by the emotion that I felt coming from him that it still troubled him.

I kept my questions to myself after that. I didn't want to distract him seeing as he knew what to look for; what Bella might leave behind. We moved further into the forest and the new scent was getting stronger. This was definitely the right trail even if Bella hadn't managed to let us know.

_There_, he stopped and bent down. I followed and stared at the ground not seeing anything but dirt and a few pieces of grass. He moved the grass and up under it was an x embedded in the dirt. It looked as if it was done with a heel and for the first time I thanked Alice for getting rid of all of Bella's flat shoes.

_That's my girl_, Jasper smiled. _She obviously left this but what troubles me is that it is apparent that someone came behind and tried to cover it._ He stood and looked around finally walking over to a bush. He leaned down and sniffed it lightly. _Someone else has Bella_.

I walked over to him. "How can you tell?"

_Because this scent is older and weaker than Maria's but not by much_, he informed me. _I think either Maria had someone grab her first and is following so that Bella can't leave any clues or someone else took Bella and Maria is just taking advantage of the situation. Either way Bella is in trouble._

I leaned down and smelled the leaf that Jasper had dropped. Bile rose in my throat. No wonder the scent seemed familiar. Why? Why would she do this? She was like family and Carlisle thought of her as one of his own. They had known each other for well over two hundred years and for her to turn on us like this. Carlisle would be devastated when we found Bella.

"I know who has her." Jasper looked at me. "Tanya"

His eyes widened. _Why_, his thoughts followed mine. _Why would she do this?_

"Because of me" I tried to whisper but it came out more of a hiss.

_She was jealous when she first saw the two of you together_, he was straining to see in the distance, _but I didn't think she would go this far._

"That makes two of us" I didn't want to think of hurting Tanya. Unlike Maria, she was a friend but if she did anything to Bella I would hurt her. "We have to find them."

_This way_, Jasper was moving again. Faster this time but still slower than a run and his eyes were glued to the ground now knowing Bella's method of being tracked.

We found three more x's in the ground before the path split. We strained to catch any clue as to which way they had gone but nothing.

_I don't like the idea of splitting up_, Jasper's head was moving as he looked for another clue.

"But it might be the only way" I didn't like it anymore than him but the last thing I wanted was to lose more time.

_You're right_, he tipped his head to the right. _I'll go this way and you take that path. Give it ten minutes and if you haven't seen anything or smelled anything than turn around and come find me. I will do the same._

"Sounds good" I shook his hand. "Good luck"

_You too_

_Canada_, I stopped and held Jasper's hand firm. "Did you say that?" I knew he hadn't but it was too good to be true.

_Say what_, his eyes were narrowed. _What did you hear Edward?_

"Canada" I told him. I looked toward the path that would lead that direction and took off. Jasper at my back. Bella had to be close for me to hear her. I stopped short. Unless that hadn't been Bella. As far as I knew there were three women out here and two of them knew I could read minds. What if Tanya was trying to through us off again?

I voiced my concern to Jasper and he agreed that we needed to proceed with caution. We slowed down and moved quietly still looking for clues. Jasper stopped when he saw another x. This was the right direction. I silently thanked Bella and we picked up our pace.

I wasn't sure how long we were running but we soon passed the Canadian border. Not long after the path widen and we noticed that we were coming to a cove. Jasper pushed me up against the nearest tree.

_Too much open space_, he let me know. _If Maria is here and she has more than Tanya with her it would be too easy for them to see us._ I nodded in understanding just as I was bombarded with thoughts.

_Does she really think she is that much better than me? She has been in his life for less time than he has even been immortal and she thinks she knows him. For her to presume that he turned me down? She doesn't know anything. I bet that was what he told her so that she would think nothing had happened between us. That's what it has to be. He just said those things to get her into bed. He doesn't love her. He couldn't love her. Well even if he did it won't make a difference soon. When would Maria get here? I need to get back so that I can explain to the others. I don't want them to suspect anything. I could leave her tied up but what if she found a way to get out. That wouldn't be good. No I'll stay until Maria get's here and then she can take her._

I nudged Jasper and tapped my head to let him know that I was hearing things. It wasn't often but in times like this I wished I could project my thoughts into others minds. If I could let Jasper know that Tanya was here without her hearing us that would be perfect.

_Tanya_, he asked as if reading my mind. I looked at him wondering how he knew_. I can feel the jealousy and anger._ I nodded again. _If it had just been anger I would have assumed Maria but she had never been jealous of Bella just hateful._

"Do you sense her?" I took a chance and asked him. The only thoughts I had heard so far where Tanya's but I couldn't be sure. What if some of those statements had been Maria?

_Not yet but she has to be around here somewhere._ His eyes moved quickly. _She knows how my power works and Bella's she won't make a move until she can be sure that I won't find her and Bella can't hurt her._

Okay so we would wait. We would wait however long it took but there was no way that I was leaving this place without Bella by my side. No way in hell.

**AN: Happy Wednesday everyone. Well we are almost to the end and as much as I hate that part I have to say that these last few chapters might be my favorite. I hope you like them as well and I can't wait to hear all your thoughts. **

**As a side note I have a couple of story ideas that I am thinking of posting but I might add a poll to see which one you guys are interested in seeing. If I do then it won't be before 2010 unless I just get really excited so keep on the lookout. See ya next chapter.**

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	17. Chapter 16: FIRE

_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Chapter 16: FIRE

**Bella POV**

"No more questions?" Tanya was really getting on my nerves.

We had been walking for miles which in my opinion was stupid but I was learning that was Tanya. If you have the ability to run at close to the speed of light why would you walk? Especially if you were trying to get away fast enough that no one would find you. You could tell that she had never been in any type of confrontational area. Maria would have slit us apart if we had moved as slowly as this woman. But on the good side it had given me time to leave my marks in the ground. Every time I got under her skin she had stopped. I just hoped Jasper was the one out looking for me because I didn't think the Cullens would know what to look for.

I had taken a chance with letting down my shield in the hope that Edward was close enough to hear me. I had been broadcasting Canada for the last half hour and no one was here. I had decided that the last one was just that; my last. If Edward hadn't found me by now then he must not be close enough to hear me.

This sucked. I was trapped in this hole with an annoying woman who was obsessed with my…my boyfriend I guess and it was ridiculous. Sitting here waiting for the one person in the world that wanted me dead was also ridiculous. I wanted to do something but I wasn't sure what. The rope around me wasn't tight enough to cut off breathing or anything but it was just tight enough to feel it. Just tight enough for me not to be able to defend myself, at least not physically.

This didn't make any sense. Maria knew that she wouldn't be able to touch me. She knew that my guard would be up none stop once I sensed her coming. She wouldn't be able to touch me so what was her plan? Starve me to death? Could vampires even starve? Tie me to a tree somewhere and wait for animals to attack me? They wouldn't be able to pierce my skin. This plan made no sense. She couldn't hurt me. My mind raced and came to a sudden stop.

She couldn't hurt me physically but mentally was a different story. I thought back on all my years with Maria, what had made her so sadistic is that she took pleasure not in killing but in torturing. That last fight with Jasper she hadn't been going for the kill no she had been going for pain. Jasper was her best fighter. There was no way she would have been able to kill him and she had to have known that. But to threaten me; to have him live with the thought that someday she could get close enough to kill me. That had been her plan. That was still her plan.

This wasn't about me. This had never been about me. She had hated me that was true but she had hated me because she had loved Jasper and he had loved me. It all made sense now. This was about Jasper. She was using me to get to him. How stupid I had been. She couldn't give a rat's ass about me but Jasper had been her pride and joy. She had wanted him from the first moment that he woke up and because of me he had repeatedly turned her away. Then to add insult to injury he had left with me. It all made such perfect sense now. She was killing two birds with one stone.

She couldn't touch me but if she got to Jasper before he found me then I couldn't shield him. She could destroy him for betraying her and then parade his broken body in front of me. That would kill me. To lose Jasper would be worst than losing my whole human family. She would get her revenge and she wouldn't have to do anything but wait.

I looked over at Tanya. She had no idea. I bet she thought that she was just helping to get rid of me and everyone else would be fine. That once Maria had taken me she could return to the Denali's and the Cullen's and everything would go back to normal. It wouldn't go back to normal. Maria would have destroyed a vital member of their family and mentally incapacitated another. If I knew Maria she probably wouldn't even take me. She would just make sure that I knew she had destroyed Jasper and my family and then she would run off back to her army thinking that would protect her and leave Tanya to clean up the mess. It was typical Maria; have someone else do her dirty work.

"You know she's going to double cross you." I had had enough. Just sitting here wasn't getting me anywhere and I needed to find Jasper and the Cullen's before Maria did.

"Who?"

"Maria" I didn't care if she knew that I had figured it out or not.

"How did you…?" She looked shocked.

"Because you suck at keeping your mouth shut." I shouldn't upset her but right now it wasn't about her or me; it was about my family.

"How dare you?" She stood.

"Look, I don't want to fight with you but we have to get back to the Cullens" I told her.

"Yeah I bet you'd like that wouldn't you?" She smirked. "Run up to Eddie crying how I kidnapped you and planned to give you to Maria."

"Right now I wouldn't care if you told him that we ran into each other hunting in the woods." She had to have the most complete one track mind in the world. "This is about the fact that they are in danger. All of them."

"Sure they are." Tanya laughed. "You really expect me to believe that?"

What was I thinking? Of course she wouldn't believe me. In her eyes I was the enemy. I had to come up with something that she would believe. "Okay" I lowered my eyes praying she would fall for this. "Your right. I just wanted to get back."

Her smile was back. "I knew it."

"Yes, I…I wanted to turn you in" I stammered trying to add the right emotion to my voice. "But if you just let me get back then I will take Jasper and we will go."

"Jasper?"

"Yes" I closed my eyes picturing Edward as I said this. "The truth is that I have been in love with him since I first saw him. The way that he cares for me is the thing girl's dream of. He means everything to me and I can't make it without him." I opened my eyes back up and looked at her. "If you give me a chance to survive then I will take the love of my life and we will disappear."

"What about Alice?"

I thought of all the times she stole my clothes or shoes and the many times she tried to make me over. "Alice can be annoying to say the least. I will be glad when it is just the two of us again."

Her eyes narrowed again. "And you think he feels the same about you?"

"I know Jasper feels exactly the same way about me as I do about him." I smiled internally thinking that there was no lie in that sentence. "If I can just get to him then everything will be alright."

"You really mean this?"

"Yes with all my heart" She was considering it. Her eyes were darting back and forth to the opening of the cove she had me in. I decided to put the icing on the cake. "We could go back together and I would let you go in first. You could grab Edward and take him somewhere. Keep him there long enough for Jasper and I to leave and then bring him back." I shrugged trying to appear as if I didn't care. "You would be doing me a favor actually. I hate the thought of having to explain everything to him. He can be quite clingy."

"I don't know" Her voice wavered. "What if you come back?"

"Why would we?" I shrugged again. "Jasper and I will be together and Alice and Edward would be here. Neither of us would want to bring up old wounds. Besides there are so many places we could go. We both always wanted to see Europe. There would be no point in coming back."

"That's true." She nodded in agreement moving closer to me. I knew I was going to have to drop my shield if I was going to let her get the rope off me and that would be taking a chance. She could be playing me as much as I was playing her. "Okay" She took another step closer. "Provided you and Jasper leave and never come back and I get Edward then I will let you go."

"Perfect" She took another step but was stopped by a voice I had never wanted to hear again.

"You have to be the dumbest person alive" Maria walked toward us. "She is lying to you." She stopped in front of me. "Isn't that right, Bella?"

"You couldn't have waited five minutes more?" I answered with a smart ass question. I mean she was going to find a way to torture and kill me so I didn't see the point in being nice.

"Good to see you haven't changed a bit." She smiled at me.

"Neither have you" I shook my head. It was too late. Maybe I would get lucky and she would settle of killing just me.

"Tell me" She took her eyes off me. "Where's Jasper?"

Of course I wouldn't get that lucky. "I have no idea." I had to stall until I could come up with something. "You haven't seen him?"

Her smile was instantly gone. "Don't get smart with me? I'll string you up as proof of what happens when you betray me."

I laughed at her. "How are you going to touch me, Maria, telepathically?"

She yanked on the rope and I fell forward. "I think I won't have a problem."

I sat back up spitting the dirt out of my mouth. "Did I mention how much I missed you?"

She stalked toward me but stopped herself inches away. "You think I'm stupid enough to fall for your games?"

"Is that a trick question?"

"You would think someone in your position would be nicer?" She knelt down in front of me.

"Why?" I asked. "You're just going to do whatever you want anyway and we both know this isn't about me?"

She smiled and that was all the confirmation I needed. "Where you even planning on taking me with you after you kill him?"

"And spend another hundred years putting up with you?" She huffed. "I don't think so."

"What?" Tanya jumped in. "You promised."

"She really is dumb isn't she?" Maria motioned her head to point to Tanya. "She never would have made it in the army. I probably would have had her killed before her time was up." She stood turning to look at Tanya. "Relax I have plans for her. I think the Volturi will be interested in your powers." She laughed. "After all I can't have you chasing after me now can I?"

"I'm not going to Italy" I told her.

"You think you have a choice in this?" Maria was back in front of me.

"You bet your ass she does." I saw my salvation and my worst nightmare standing across the field from me. Both Edward and Jasper had come for me. Unfortunately they were too far away for me to shield them.

"Jazz," Maria winked at me. "It's good to see you again.

"Jasper, Edward get out of here." They had to leave. If I couldn't protect them they were like sitting ducks.

"Not a chance" Edward spoke up. "We're not leaving without you."

Maria looked him up and down. "So you're the one causing all this drama." She turned and smiled at me and Tanya. "He's cute. I could see it but still not my type." She turned back to Jasper.

"Jazz you have to go" I screamed.

"It's okay Bella" He was talking to me but his eyes never left Maria. "She can't hurt me."

"Jazz" I tried to push my shield further but I could see the red edges and I knew they weren't covered.

"Don't worry Bella" Jasper smirked. "I've been waiting for this for a long time."

"You really think you could take me?" Maria smirked back. "Without your little emotion power or your playthings help."

Jasper said nothing but one eyebrow rose as he continued to stare her down. "What about you? You think you can take me without your army?" We both knew Maria rarely participated in battle. She preferred to manage as she liked to put it which basically meant sitting on the sidelines watching.

"What if I didn't come alone?" She asked.

"What if I didn't either?" Again that one eyebrow went up.

She pointed her head toward Edward. "You really think he can help you?"

"You really think he can't?" They were at a standstill with these questions and all I wanted to do was help.

Edward looked at Jasper as Maria looked to her right and then her left. Ten other vampires walked out. This was getting worse by the minute. Even Tanya looked scared. I shook my head, she really was worthless.

"Your army I presume?" Jasper asked still not taking his eyes off Maria.

"I never travel without them." She smiled and sent him a look of victory. "Worried?"

Jasper laughed. "Not in the least." Edward looked behind them and all the Cullen's, including Alice, walked out. "Did I mention Bella and I made some new friends?"

The field looked a lot more even now but I still didn't like the odds. The Cullens where out there without any protection and they didn't know how Maria saw fighting. They didn't know how dirty she was or how she trained her people to fight; to go for the kill at any cost. I just wasn't sure they were ready for this.

"But" Jasper took a few steps closer to Maria who had looked nervous for the first time when the Cullens stepped out. "This isn't about them or about Bella. This is about you and me. You have always hated me for choosing her over you when really there was no choice to make."

"Bella has never been anything more than family to me." For the first time he took his eyes off Maria to look over at me quickly. "She would not have begrudged me a companion, a mate. She would have welcomed her with open arms no matter how much she might bug her. If she had been the right one." I thought of the arguments I had had with Alice and wondered at that statement. But in the end I knew it was true. "It was you that made it about a choice and you couldn't hold a candle to her."

"You dare to compare me to that thing." Maria advanced and again I tried to stretch my shield but couldn't reach Jasper. "She has never been anything to me but a foot soldier and that is all she should have been to you but you and your damn guilt over changing her. You did what we do. You feed and lucked upon someone powerful that was all. The only thing she has ever been good for was protection in a fight. Pass that she could and should have burned with the others."

Edward made a move for Maria but Jasper held his hand up and Emmett held him back. My breath released as soon as I realized that he was safe.

"You never got it." Jasper spoke. "It wasn't about fighting, power or guilt. It was about love and commitment. It was about having someone there for you and you being there for them." He smiled. "That's what family does; that's what family is."

"You've gone soft" She shook her head. "You're not the same Jasper I knew."

"No, I'm not" His smile was gone. "But that doesn't mean I can let you walk off this field." He moved closer to her and closer to the edge of my shield. "Come on Maria, you and me, one last time. Let's finish this."

She said nothing but jumped in the air planning to reach his back but Jasper had anticipated this and rolled so that all she landed on was dirt. I stood and watched feeling useless. My shield had barely reached him when they started but now they were moving farther away. I closed my eyes to concentrate on Jasper. Maybe I could split the shield. That way I could push the second one out further and cover him. They were moving so fast and making so much noise that I was finding it hard to focus. That was when I heard Alice's scream.

I opened my eyes to see Maria on Jasper's back her teeth at his throat. I knew he could get out of this hold, he had done it before, but it became more than I could handle. I felt the rage building inside me as it had before. I took one step and then another. Two vampires came at me and I dropped my shield just long enough to use them to cut my ropes. Once free I easily snapped their necks and kept on my mission.

Jasper was steps away when three other vampires came at me. I saw Edward running toward me but another vampire ran to tackled him but he side stepped him obviously having read his mind. Emmett jumped in to confuse the vampire and they fell to the ground fighting. Edward was almost to me and Jasper had managed to get out of Maria's hold but I couldn't stop it this time any more than I could last time.

Edward ripped at a vampire that stood in between us but it didn't matter. I heard Jasper scream and Maria's gasp but I couldn't find the control. I looked up and saw it. I knew everyone was backing away except for Jasper and Edward. They were both so close to reaching me but I put up my hands to stop them. If I wasn't able to control this then I would kill them too. I would kill everyone. The Cullen's, Alice, Tanya, Maria, everyone. I closed my eyes reaching, searching for something, anything that could bring this under control. I didn't want to be a killer again. I didn't want to single-handedly destroy my whole family. How was I going to make it go away this time? How was I going to find the strength to stop?

I was at my end when my strength found me. When I was able to open my eyes and find the control. When I realized that I wasn't a killer and all it took was one word.

**AN: I'm sure you all can figure out what might be coming next but you might not and that would be awesome if I was able to surprise you :). So that is all for this week and I will see everyone next time. Have a good week and I hope your holidays are off to a great start.**

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	18. Chapter 17: LOVE

_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Chapter 17: LOVE

**Edward POV**

I couldn't believe my eyes. My sweet, innocent, loving Bella had just used a vampire to cut her ropes, destroyed five vampires in the time it had taken me to get halfway across the field, and now she had a huge fireball suspended over all of us.

When we had first arrived here my first instinct had been to rush in and get her as far away from Tanya as possible but Jasper had said we needed to wait. He knew Tanya was working with Maria and if we just charged in then anything could go wrong and Bella could get hurt. We had moved so that we couldn't be seen by anyone coming toward the cove and waited. Ten minutes later the rest of the family showed up having been lead by Alice's visions and the trail that Jasper had left.

Emmett had agreed with me that we should just get Bella and get the hell out before Maria showed up but Jasper knew best and Carlisle was to hurt by seeing that Tanya had not only betrayed him but his family. So we all spread out and waited. That was when Bella had started talking and I had started seething.

How could she have used me like that? Did she not care for me at all or Alice? Was it really all about Jasper? Who seemed to be enjoying everything she was saying by the tone of his thoughts. Alice and I however were not. I would have punched him if he hadn't turn on me, having read my emotions, had explained.

_Think about it Edward_, he had shared. _Which statement do you think would get Tanya to let her go? That she loves you and Tanya doesn't stand a chance or that she loves me and that if she lets her go then we will leave together? She's trying to get back to me so that she can protect me. Which is stupid but so completely Bella. She should just work on getting herself out of this mess and let me worry about Maria._

That had settled me down. He was right of course. Bella loved me and what's more Jasper loved Alice. There was no way they would run off together. I had put those thought out of my mind and concentrated on finding Maria and anyone else she had with her.

_Don't worry Edward_, Alice had interrupted. _I see everything being alright but I'm not sure how._ She showed me a vision of her and Jasper hugging in the field and with the whole family all around. Everyone was in someone's arms but me and still I looked happy. I didn't know if that was just because she couldn't see Bella or if it had to do with something happening to Bella. Either way her scene didn't relax me at all. What would have made me feel better would have been having Bella safe and sound in my arms but she was a mere yard away being held by a woman that I thought of as family.

Just as Bella had convinced Tanya to let her go the woman that wanted the love of my life walked in. I couldn't tell by her thoughts if she sensed us. She was too upset with the fact that Tanya was about to let Bella go and that the ten or so vampires that were supposed to be with her had been late getting to their meeting spot. From what I could tell she seemed to be a very angry person.

Moments later Jasper had called everyone together to formulate a plan. He knew as Bella had that this was about him and he was more than ready to confront the woman that had changed him and altered his life forever. Despite her vision of happiness, Alice was not excited about this plan. She felt it had to high a risk of him getting hurt but he assured her that everything would be alright. It took some finessing but he finally convinced Alice to stay out of it.

He said it would work out better if he and I went out first. He didn't want to show Maria our whole hand until she had shown part of hers. Emmett was against this part but let it go when Rosalie threaten him with no affection should he not follow orders and get himself hurt. Before I knew it we were standing across from the demon that wanted to destroy my angel. I could have ripped her apart myself but I had to trust in Jasper's plan.

Twenty minutes later and here we were with Bella holding all our fates in her hand. Jasper and I had both run toward her but she didn't seem to be hearing us. I could see a flash of a similar field in Jasper's thoughts and an angry Bella followed by days of fire and anguish. I couldn't let Bella suffer through that again but I didn't know how to stop her. I didn't know how to reach her.

"Bella, Bella listen to me" Jasper was coaxing her. I looked back to see that Emmett had a strong hold on Maria who looked terrified while the rest of the family had destroyed the remaining three of Maria's army. "Bella you can stop this. You just have to calm down."

"You know she can't stop Jasper." Maria was yelling. "We're all going to die."

"Well, if we do it will be your fault." Jasper yelled back but kept inching up to Bella. I followed his lead not wanting to push her any further. "Bella, kitten, come on. You can do this. I told you before you can do this. You just have to get control. Don't be afraid."

Her eyes didn't leave the ball of fire in the air. I could hear her thoughts and they kept repeating how she didn't want to be a killer. My long dead heart was breaking but I didn't know how to reach her. If Jasper couldn't talk her down I wasn't sure I could either.

He reached her and his hands settled on her arms. I could feel a huge wave of calm spread out over the field but Bella's thought stayed in turmoil. Again and again she pleaded with us to leave so that she didn't kill any of us but her mouth never moved. It almost seemed like she was using all her strength to keep that ball from falling.

_Edward talk to her_, I heard Jasper scream in my head. _I can't calm her alone but hearing your voice too might do it._

I had just opened my mouth when my head was bombarded with images. Bella and I laughing, Bella and I in a beautiful meadow that I had never seen before, Bella in a flowing white gown walking toward me on Jasper's arm, Bella and I touring Europe with the family. I fell to my knees right in front of her with my arms wrapped around her waist.

_Edward did you see it_, Alice exclaimed. _Did you see it? It was our future, yours and Bella's and the family. I can finally see it. Oh Edward it was beautiful. You have to talk to her. You're the key. Your love is the key._

"Bella" I whispered looking up to find her eyes had moved and were locked with mine. "Bella, I love you. Come back to me."

She blinked twice and her thoughts disappeared but her face broke out into a beautiful smile.

**Bella POV**

Those three words gave me the strength I needed to find the control. This was no different than my shield. If I could force that out and then draw it back into myself I could do the same for this. I smiled down at my heart and let Jasper's calm fill me. I closed my eyes again this time looking for the edge of the fire and found it. I saw the white of it which was opposite of the red that sometimes edged my shield.

That was when I really understood it. My shield not only held my emotions in but it was wielded by them. When I was calm the edges where blue but during battle or an attack the edges changed to red. I pulled it close but the fire didn't shrink.

"Edward, Jasper can you hear me, feel me?" I asked.

"No" They both answered.

"Alice can you see anything from Edward or Jasper?"

She closed her eyes and I could see her looking for the future. "No" She opened them. "Everyone is blank."

I needed to see if they were covered because they were touching me. I also needed to see where the fire was and how close to us it was. "Edward, Jasper let me go." I smiled. "It's okay." They backed away slowly. "How about now Alice?" She looked again and then shook her head to say no.

I closed my eyes again and looked for the connection. I saw it. The white from the fire was fading into the blue of my shield. I had done it. I had split the shield and now I had to learn how to control the part that was holding Maria and my family hostage. I let my mind focus on the blue edge that covered me, Edward, and Jasper. I looked up and saw that the more I forced the blue into it the smaller the fire became. When I had it down to the size of a baseball I looked over to Emmett.

"Let her go" Emmett looked down at Maria and back at me.

"You have got to be kidding." He chuckled. "She kidnapped you and tried to kill Jasper."

I looked into her eyes and saw real fear for the first time in the century that I had known her. She wasn't about to try anything. I walked over to stand in front of her bringing the fireball to rest above her head.

"Trust me" I smiled at her. "She isn't going to do anything. Not now; not ever."

Emmett dropped his arms and Maria made to move but I followed. Every step she took I countered keeping her in front of me. I felt a presence next to me and glanced over at Jasper.

"This is my fight Bella" He shook his head. "Let me finish this."

"It's done" I didn't take my eyes off Maria. I brought the fire closer to her head but then brought it up and inch. I let it drop again but kept it above her head.

"Just do it." She screamed.

I laughed at her. "You think I would kill you. I'm not a killer. I never was." I told her. "You trained me to survive. I didn't want to do what I was doing. None of us did but we didn't want to burn either so we fought. But you, you're the killer. You destroy lives and take great pleasure in it. I'm not you."

I stepped closer to her confident in the fact that she couldn't touch me. "You're going to go back to your army; what's left of it, and you are never going to come after us again. I get even the smallest whiff of you and I won't hesitate to burn you and keep walking."

"You can't control this" She snarled at me.

I moved the ball down to touch her hair and lifted it as she began to scream. "You wanna bet." I looked at Jasper and he nodded. "Jasper, my family, and I are off limits to you and if you send anyone after us he'll kill you." I pointed my head to Jasper. "And I mean anyone. Volturi, vamps, friends." I looked back to Tanya who had her head hanging down.

"Like you would know." Maria never was one to back down.

"Haven't you figured it out?" I shook my head at her. "It's not just Jasper and I that you would be fighting. And it's not just our powers that you have to contend with." I looked through the family. "We have so many powerful people with us now. I would share but I don't trust you. Just know that if you try we will know."

"Fine" She backed up and bumped into Emmett.

"I don't even get one hit?" He looked sad.

"Em, you got to kill three vampires what more do you want?" Rosalie asked.

"To keep up with Bella" He winked at me. "She got five before I was at my second and she held the field hostage with a ball of fire. I can't go through eternity with her thinking she's more of a badass than me."

I laughed at him. "I promise I won't rub it in your face."

Maria had moved away from him and ran off into the woods. "Damn" He stuck out his bottom lip. "I wanted to at least push her."

I was able to put out the fireball as soon as Maria left. We all laughed at Emmett including Tanya who had made her way over to us but stopped when we heard her and turned.

"You've got to be kidding right?" Rosalie walked up to her and slapped her. "You have the nerve to act like everything is all right now?"

Alice was right with her. "You kidnap the woman who is not only my best friend but my sister and plan on giving her to the woman that is set on destroying my mate all so you can get to my brother that doesn't even like you." I had never thought of Alice as scary without a curling iron but right now I had to admit I was slightly intimidated. "We should kick your ass all over this field."

"Alice" Carlisle's calming voice fell over the field. "Calm down." She looked over at Carlisle and made her way over to Jasper who pulled her into his arms kissing her cheek.

"Tanya, I have to say that I am very disappointed." Carlisle stood before her. The look on his face made me think of my own father. I knew that like my dad, Carlisle wasn't someone you wanted to let down. "Why would you do this not just to Edward but to our family?"

"I'm so sorry Carlisle" Her voice broke. "I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt. I simply wanted her out of the way so that Edward and I could be together."

"But we weren't" Edward rushed over beside Carlisle. "We never would have been. Getting rid of Bella wouldn't have changed that. I don't love you Tanya; I love her."

"Edward I'm so sorry" She turned and reached for him.

"Don't" He side stepped her. "I use to at least like you Tanya but now" He shook his head.

"Edward please" She begged. "We could be so good together. She doesn't know you; not like I know you. I love you."

"No you don't" He yelled at her. "If you really loved me you never could have hurt me like this. You couldn't have taken someone from me that makes me happy. Love is not about you. Love is about the other person. It's about being willing to do anything just so that they can be okay." He walked away from her returning to my side. "You don't get it and I'm not sure you ever will."

Tanya was on her knees; her body racked as if tears were falling from her eyes. I didn't like her but I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She really loved Edward or at least thought she did. I wasn't about to give him up for her to be happy but I wanted to help.

"Edward can I talk to you?"

"Always" He smiled down at me and let me lead him away. I dropped my shield and let him hear my thoughts.

_Edward I think you should forgive her. I have and she obviously really cares about you. I'm not saying that I trust her_, I added quickly when he was about to stop me. _But I also know that Maria can be convincing. My guess is that Tanya didn't really know what she was getting us into._

"You think that makes it okay?" He crossed his arms. "Bella I know that you don't want to be like you were and it's for that reason I am trying to understand your letting Maria go. But Tanya not only betrayed you she betrayed our whole family. I know she hasn't known you that long but she has known Carlisle for over two hundred years. I can't forget that."

_I know_, I explained. _But I don't wait any of the past to hinder our future. I love you and I want us to be together without past resentments or angers. I want us to know that we are starting out fresh._

"I'm not sure that I can just let it go like that."

_But you just said that love isn't about you_, I reminded him. _It's about us. You and me and I'm asking you to do this for me; for us._

His arms were around me in seconds and his lips were pressed against mine. I lifted myself so that I was pressed against him and my arms were around his neck. I didn't know if he was trying to distract me or if he was giving in but I didn't care which it was. For a few minutes I had been sure that I would never see Edward again. Being in his arms felt like being home again. This was where I needed to be.

We stood there wrapped in each other not talking at all until Edward pulled back. "This is really important to you?"

_Yes_

"Fine but you have to promise me something."

_Anything_

"Don't ever scare me like that again." He framed my face with his hands. "Don't every run off without me or try to protect me by taking yourself away from me. I don't do so well without you and I prefer having you right here next to me, in my arms. Can you promise me that?"

I pulled his mouth back down to mine. As long as he kept kissing me I could promise him anything. There was no where I wanted to be. "Yes" I whispered against his lips. "Yes"

"Thank you" his lips smiled against mine.

"No, thank you" I pushed myself against him and let the wonder of love wrap around us.

**AN: Only one more chapter to go and an epilogue. I must say that I am sorry to see this end. I had so much fun writing it and the reviews for this one have been hilarious. I love how much every really dislikes Tanya and just how stupid everyone sees her. I must admit I didn't mean to make her so hated but it has been amusing to see.**

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	19. Chapter 18: BELONGING

_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Chapter 18: BELONGING

**Bella POV**

_Seven months later_

"You ready to go, love" Edward asked walking up behind me and putting his arms around my waist.

"Almost" I leaned back against him relaxing into his hold. I had been walking around the attic for the last half hour just like that first day I came here.

Everything looked the same as yesterday even though we had packed most of our things and were finally moving to Washington State. I had never been there but the Cullens assured me that it was a nice enough place and we would all fit in. Or at least fit in as much as a doctor vampire and his wife and six children could fit in. We would even be going to school. The last time I had been in school women didn't go anywhere past the sixth grade and it had been in a house down the street and taught by that old bitty Miss Ingles. We would be starting out as freshman in high school. I was sure there was so much I wouldn't know but Edward had agreed to help me and with our vampire memory everyone believed that all of us would be fine. I still wasn't sure how I felt about that but it was expected and I knew it would make Edward happy so I agreed.

I glanced around again baffled that the Cullens were leaving the furniture. According to Edward it was too cumbersome to move everything every time they moved. Plus Esme loved to decorate and Rosalie loved to shop and I guess adding Alice into that mix it did make some sense. He also mentioned that they were planning on eventually moving back to this house about seventy years or so from now or at least that was Carlisle's plan. They also wanted to keep this house as an emergency house because it was so out of the way. In case there were slips or we needed to relocate in a hurry.

I didn't know how I felt about moving back here either. Some time had passed since the incident with Tanya and Maria and I had moved on with my life but I still didn't feel comfortable with her close by. She didn't come to visit and I think that had more to do with Edward and Jasper's mood toward her than me but either way I was glad that I hadn't had to see her in the last few months. Maybe with time I could trust her again but right now I wasn't sure.

We had also gotten word from Peter that Maria was killed a few weeks ago. Apparently some of her enemies had been told that she was traveling alone and she was attacked and dismembered on her way back to camp. I asked Jasper if he knew anything about it but he wouldn't answer. He had shrugged his shoulders and walked away. I knew Jasper well enough to know that was as good of an admission as any and I didn't question it any further.

So here we were standing in this old room about to start the next chapter of our lives. Everyone was so excited but I felt somewhat sad. I had found love in this house. Amidst all the worry and fighting I had found happiness. That was something I hadn't known in all my years both as human and vampire. I had found a place that I belonged and a family that truly loved me. It was hard to walk away from this place that had changed my life.

"I'm really going to miss it here." I spoke softly to the room at large but I knew that Edward would understand.

"Yes" His arms tighten around mine. "I am too."

I turned in his arms and pulled his head down to mine. His lips encircled mine and my still heart leapt at the contact. There was something special about being in his arms. I felt safe and important. As if the devil could come to the door for us and he wouldn't let me go. He was a wonderful man and I was so lucky that with everything that I had done and all the drama that I had brought to his family he still loved me.

"We should go" He pulled back reluctantly. "Alice is getting impatient."

"She can wait a little longer." I reached for him again.

"Probably but do you really want to ride all the way to Washington with her in a bad mood?" He questioned. "Especially with Jasper there too?"

"What do I care?" I shrugged. "It's not like her moods or his can affect me."

"But they can affect me and I really would like to enjoy the trip." He pleaded with me.

"Fine" I turned and walked around once more. "Do you think we will have an attic like this in the new house?"

"I don't know." His eyes followed me. "This one is pretty special."

I sat down on the couch that was covered with cloth to protect it and motioned for him to sit next to me. "Do you remember the first night I came up here?"

"Of course" He drew me closer.

"You were so nervous" I laughed. "You would have thought I came up here to attack you."

He laughed too. "I had never met anyone that inspired the feeling inside me that you did and I was so scared that I would mess things up." He kissed my forehead. "I almost did."

"Not that night" I closed my eyes and dropped my shield so that he could see my memories of us here month before. _That night was perfect._

"I couldn't agree more." He smiled. "But most every night since has been pretty great too."

I lifted my shield and moved away from him. "We can still have that when we get to this new place, right?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way" He pulled me back toward him, placing his lips back on mine.

"Would you two come on" Alice yelled up the stairs. "We don't want to be the last ones there. I've already seen that the room situation will not be pleasant if we don't all leave at the same time."

I stood letting Edward's hand hold mine as we headed down the stairs. "Why she insist on screaming I will never understand." I shook my head.

"It makes me feel normal" Alice yelled again. "I will be in the car."

Edward laughed and we both picked up our pace so that we didn't have to listen to Alice complain all the way to Forks.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Three hours later we pulled up to a beautiful three story white house. It had an old world feel to it and was surrounded by forest and trees.

"We finally made it." Alice exclaimed jumping out of the car before it had stopped. Edward, Jasper and I could do nothing but laugh. "Hurry Jazz, we want to get the best room."

"You think I should tell her that Carlisle and Esme have already claimed the biggest room?" Edward asked after she had closed the door.

"That would only matter to Alice if the biggest room translated to the room with the biggest closet." Jasper informed us.

"Maybe you'll get lucky and she won't make the whole room pink this time." Edward smiled back at him.

"I doubt it" He shook his head. "You're lucky Bella isn't girlie at all."

"Hay" I interrupted. "I am completely girlie. I just don't see the need to douse my room in Pepto-Bismol."

"What about the shopping?" Jasper teased me. "You hate shopping and make-up and clothes."

"First off I don't hate shopping." I turned in my seat to face him. "It's just that your girlfriend seems to think of it as an Olympic sport. I don't mind make up but once again your girlfriend thinks it's the same as changing underwear, done daily and done often. And last if I didn't like clothes I would have spent the last few decades naked. So don't blame me for the fact that Alice as your idea of what girlie is all messed up."

Edward's laughter filled the car. "Don't piss her off Jazz I just got this car and I would like the roof to not suddenly burst into flames."

That had been the standing joke ever since I had learned to control my fireball power. Every time someone would say something that I wouldn't like someone else would mention my setting something on fire. I hadn't used it once since that day with Maria but the Cullens I was learning liked to tease.

"If I were you I would be more worried that I was pissing her off than me." Jasper responded to him. "You know she hates to be reminded about that." They both started laughing and I decided I should leave before I hurt either of them.

"Fine" I opened the door. "Both of you can sit out here and make jokes. I'm going to find Alice and battle her for a room."

"Get us a good one." Edward called to me before I shut the door.

"Did I say I was sharing with you?" I slammed the door and walked away smiling deep down. I knew that we would be in the same room but I liked the idea of making him think otherwise just for his little joke.

Once inside I was surprised that this house looked almost identical to the one we had just left in Alaska. I guess when the Cullens find something they like they stick to it. I ran up the stairs not even pausing until I reached the third level. I was hoping to find it was an attic but there were four doors. I opened each one ready to see stairs behind it but they were nothing but rooms. The last one I found had an exuberate Alice twirling around in the middle of it.

"Isn't this perfect Bella" She didn't stop. "Jazz and I can have this room and you and Edward can take the one at the other end. That way we can get dress for school together every morning."

I cringed internally thinking of the hours that I would have to spend with Alice in her monster closet and bathroom. "Maybe Edward and I will take one of the bedrooms on the second floor so that you and Jasper can have some privacy."

"To late" She stopped and walked over to another door. "Carlisle and Esme already have the one of the bedrooms and Rosalie and Emmett took the other one."

Great, I thought. "It looks like we will be neighbors then." I smiled and braced myself.

Alice ran over and gripped me in an air tight hug. "I know. Isn't it wonderful?"

"Absolutely" I chuckled. I would be spending eternity with Alice as my sister so I might as well get use to it now.

"Alice let Bella go" I heard Jasper's voice from the doorway.

"Sorry" Alice pulled back and ran over to tackle Jasper. "Isn't it the best room in the house Jazz? Look at all the windows and the closet is practically its own room. Plus we have our own bathroom and everything. And there is another room next door that you could use as your study to decorate anyway you want seeing as how I already know exactly how this room will look."

"Pink again" He looked like he might vomit on the floor.

"No silly" Alice laughed. "I'm thinking about using blush and egg shell this time."

"Blush and egg shell?" Jasper asked.

"Basic a light pink and off white." I informed him.

"But Alice…." He trailed off and I left the room laughing all the way down the hall.

I found Edward in the room that was to be ours and walked up to stand beside him. He was looking out of the wall of windows that covered the right wall.

"This is nice." I put his arm around my shoulder.

"It's alright, but…" I couldn't help teasing him some more. "You should see my room though. It's way better."

His face fell and he turned so that we were facing each other. "Bella you know that I was joking." He sounded so hurt. "I'm sorry if I upset you and I won't mention your powers again."

"I was joking Edward" I ran my hand across his check. "Have I ever told you that you need to loosen up?"

He smiled and pulled me into a comforting embrace. "Once or twice."

"Well you should listen to me." I smiled against his chest.

"Always, my love" I felt his lips against my temple. "Always."

I could stand this way forever but as of right now we were standing in an empty room. "Let's go get our things."

"Fine but we don't have anywhere to put them." Edward said looking around.

"Not to worry" Alice popped her head into the room. "The furniture delivery people should be here in three minutes, right when we get outside."

"We didn't move furniture Alice." Edward stated.

I rolled my eyes. "Don't you get it Edward? She already bought it."

He looked from me to Alice. "When did you have the time? How did you know what we would want?"

This time Alice rolled her eyes at him. "Honestly Edward. You think I like French music? I saw all of this in my vision but I couldn't let you know. So I just ordered the furniture before we left." She laughed and turned to leave. "It's simply amazing what you can get done with enough money over the phone."

"That's Alice" I pulled him to follow her out.

"Wow" He still looked in shock.

Sure enough there was another truck outside as we walked out. Alice was talking to one of the men by the truck and explaining where everything went.

"Well, at least she is efficient." Esme said as she walked past us.

"All I know is that I better like it or it's all going back" Rosalie followed.

"I don't care as long as it's not pink" Jasper came to stand beside Edward and I.

"Aw hell no" Emmett stopped next to Jasper. "There is no way that I am living in a pink house. That is far too girlie."

"You guys are going to just have to learn to trust me" Alice said as she led the movers into the house.

We all followed her in and noticed that the furniture wasn't that much different than what had been in the house in Alaska. There were brown leather sofas for the living room and a huge dining table that was sure to get no use whatsoever. She had tailored each room of furniture to each couple.

Carlisle and Esme had a big four poster mahogany bed and dresser set. Rosalie and Emmett had sturdy oak and Edward and I had a large black comfy bed. Jasper was happy to see that the furniture for them wasn't pink but a dark wood. I had to admit that she had done a great job.

It didn't take long for us to get all the cars unpacked and our things moved in. I was standing by the nightstand un-wrapping my oldest possession. I placed my father's hand carved house right where I would be able to see it.

"That's lovely." Edward came up behind me.

"My father gave it to me" I told him.

"I know" I turned to look at him with a question in my eyes. "Jasper told us when you left. It was how he knew you were gone."

I nodded. Of course Jasper would notice if my old house was gone. He had been with me when I went to get it. "He told me that it was so that I would be able to always find my way home." I told him about my human father.

"That was sweet." He touched it gently. "Jasper didn't tell us that was the reason for it but simply shared that you didn't go anywhere without it.

"Thanks" I wrapped myself into his arms. "It's true. We snuck back to my old home about five years after I was changed. I hadn't really expected to find it but when I saw it I knew that I had to take it. My father had been the most important person to me in my human life and having the house with me made me feel like a part of him was still with me."

"He is" Edward squeezed me. "Just like my parents are always with me."

I smiled at him and leaned up to kiss him softly. "Are you still nervous about tomorrow?" He asked. We were supposed to start school the next day.

"Somewhat" I told him. "Mostly I am scared that I won't know what I'm doing."

"You'll be fine." He pulled me over so that we were sitting on the bed. "I got you something that I hope helps."

"Edward you didn't have to do that" I couldn't tell him that I hated gifts.

"I wanted too" He kissed my hand and reached over to the other nightstand and pulled out a small box.

I opened it and inside was a silver piano. "Edward it's beautiful." I moved it around in my hand. He took it from me and turned something on the underside of it. The room filled with sound. I listened closely and immediately recognized it as the song that Edward had been playing when I first learned that he could play piano. "It's your song" I said my voice filled with awe.

"No" He shook his head. "It's your song." He placed the music box on the stand next to my house. "It's the song that you inspired. You brought music back into my life and I wanted you to know just how much I love you." He kissed me lightly. "I guess this one can be so you always know where you belong; right here with me."

If I could cry tears would be running down my face. "Oh Edward"

I reached up and pulled him to me. "I love you so much, Bella"

"I love you too" I rested my head on his shoulder.

"I have one other thing for you." He was holding my hand and I felt something soft touch my skin. I looked down and there was a bracelet around my wrist with a huge diamond heart attached to it.

"Edward I can't" I was shaking my head and reaching for the clasp at the same time.

"Yes you can" His hand stopped me.

"But it's too expensive."

"It belonged to my mother." He explained. "This way you know that my heart is always with you."

I stopped struggling and looked up at him. "As mine is with you."

He kissed me gently and leaned us down onto the bed. Although he had never pressured me beyond light kisses this one was different. His hands began to move up the side of my shirt and his lips made their way to under my ear. This was how every night should begin. "Bella, must I always be a gentleman?" He asked with his lips pressed against my neck.

"Absolutely not" I shook my head. Letting my hands find their way under his shirt. "Matter of fact, there are times being a gentleman is highly overrated."

Our laughter filled the room and as I felt his hands touch my body I knew that this was the only way, the best way, to spend eternity; with the one person you love.

**AN: There it is. The End. I almost want to cry. **

**Okay so last week I mentioned that there was a possibility for a sequel, can anyone guess what that sequel might be? Anyone? **

**Please be sure to head over to my profile and answer the poll at the top. I want to know how well it worked having the previews posted on my website. **

**On to the last of Beyond the Past.**

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	20. EPILOGUE

_Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun._

Epilogue

**Bella POV**

_One year later_

Today I was getting married. It had been close to two years since Jasper, Alice and I had found the Cullens and a little over six months ago since Edward asked me to marry him. I had never heard of vampires having actual weddings but the Cullens strongly believed in it and there was no way that I could say no.

This was so different from Clement and knowing my whole human life that I was supposed to be with him. My father had chosen Clement; I had chosen Edward or more correctly we had chosen each other. He had filled my life with so much love and happiness that I couldn't imagine one moment of forever without him. We were a team which was something Clement and I had never been. Edward listened to me, supported me, and understood. He pushed me in all the ways that I needed and was there for me when I messed up. He was everything that I had ever wanted.

If I had gotten a choice in the matter we would have been married right away but Alice had wanted to plan everything. We didn't know anyone in town really and there were only some of the Denalis that we wanted there so I didn't see the point of something big but Alice had insisted. She had said that a woman only got married once so she had to make it all that she could. Rosalie had disagreed. According to Edward Rose and Emmett had been married three times in the ten years that they had been together.

I couldn't see doing this more than once. What would be the point? Once you had agreed to share your life, mortal or immortal, with someone why did you need to repeat it every few years? This was one instance when I did surprisingly agree with Alice. I was doing this once and we would remember it for always.

I had finally talked Alice into scaling it down but then Jasper had to ruin everything and propose to Alice a few weeks after Edward. She thought that it would be perfect for the both of us to have our weddings together to symbolize our complete induction into the Cullen family. That changed everything. I had been to every story in the country and a few in Europe to find a wedding dress. Flowers had been sent in from all over the world. We had more candles then we had guest. Still Alice might be right. If you're going to do this once you might as well do it big.

"Are you ready Kitten?" Jasper came into my room. He looked very handsome in his black tux. His hair was slicked back and he seemed nervous.

"Are you?"

He took a deep breath. "If I could throw up I would but other than that I'm fine."

I smiled at him. "It will be okay."

"I know"

"And you do love her"

"More than life itself." He looked awed. "My life was nothing until she came."

I pulled my eyes together. "Should I feel offended or jealous at that statement?"

He laughed. "Neither. There would have been nothing for her to love without you."

I smiled and slipped my arm around his. "That's all I wanted to hear."

**Edward POV**

I couldn't wait to see Bella. I hadn't been able to set foot in the house for the last twenty-four hours thanks to Alice and her silly traditions. She didn't even remember being human but she somehow remembered that the groom wasn't supposed to see the bride before she walked down the aisle.

I was nervous about this step in my life but I was so excited to know that soon Bella would be mine. I knew that she had been mine since the first moment she had told me she loved me but now it would be official. She would be Mrs. Edward Anthony Mason Cullen. That had a great ring to it.

I had wanted to marry her right away but both Alice and Jasper had put a hold on that. First Alice with her big wedding plans and then Jasper by asking Alice to marry him too. I didn't mind sharing the day with them because I would always remember it as Bella and I's day but I did mind that it had pushed the date back so long.

Not that that had stopped us from being together in every way possible. I knew my parents probably wouldn't approve but Bella was my mate and whether we were married or not there was nothing that could change that or come between it.

I looked over to where the Denali's were seated. Tanya hadn't made the trip and I was fine with that. I had forgiven her as Bella had requested but that didn't mean that I wanted her anywhere near my angel ever again.

I looked up as Rosalie began to play and saw Bella walking toward me on Jasper's arm. We had decided that since both Bella and Jasper felt as if he was closer to a father to her than Carlisle he should be the one to walk her down.

She looked beautiful in her white dress that flowed down the back. She had decided against a traditional veil so I could see her face perfectly and she had never looked more amazing. I couldn't wait for her to reach my side where she belonged.

Slowly Jasper let her go, kissing both her checks and shaking my hand. _Be good to her Edward_, Jasper told me. _Just because we are family now doesn't mean that I won't kick your butt if you hurt her._

I nodded to let him know that I understood what he was saying. I looked over to see Bella smiling up at me looking radiate. I leaned down to kiss her but was stopped by Emmett's cough.

_Really Eddie, you waited a half a century to lose that virginity and you can't wait a few minutes until Carlisle tells you that you can kiss the bride. That is so sad._

I wanted to growl at him but I held it in. Bella was standing with me and in a few minutes we would be one and there was no way I was letting Emmett ruin that.

**Jasper POV**

I had just handed off Bella to Edward and although I had never seen her as anything other than a daughter or sister I felt some sadness at the idea of losing her. I knew that she would really be my sister or sister-in-law but it wouldn't be the same. It wouldn't be just the two of us ever again. She would be with Edward and I would be with Alice.

Everything had changed and although it was mournful to say goodbye to some of those times in our past I was completely looking forward to our future. We had weathered a storm and found a way beyond the past. We had both made a new future for ourselves and we had found our happy endings.

I stood there waiting as Alice walked toward me on Carlisle's arm. Her smile alone was worth all that I had been through. I didn't know how I had gotten so lucky as to find the one person in the world that completed me but I wasn't stupid enough to let her go. There was nothing I wouldn't do for her and I was grateful that she felt the same for me.

Carlisle stopped next to me and passed Alice's hand to mine. I held it close knowing that I would always be able to hold her. I listened intently as Carlisle proceeded with the ceremony that would seal our future together. I repeated the words that others had said from the beginning of time that bound for eternity. I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers joining myself to her in a way that was recognized by all.

We broke apart to be greeted by our family and the other newlyweds. We all ventured back into the house to change and then as a celebration we all ran to California where they were having a mountain lion problem and helped them out.

When we returned Alice and I said goodnight and made our way to our room. We had been together before but I knew that tonight would be different. We would be man and wife. There was nothing more sacred than that.

As I lay on the bed waiting for my wife to come out of the bathroom I thought about my journey to her. I had lost my life, gained a daughter and best friend more precious than gold, ran from the devil and found an angel. There was no way a hundred years ago I would have seen my life being filled with the love and joy that Alice brought me.

She opened the door and as I looked into her honey eyes shining at me with the love I felt radiating from within I reached for her. I thought of the next hundred years with her on one side and Bella and the Cullens on the other and for the second time in my life I felt hope.

**AN: So bittersweet to reach the last words but I couldn't imagine any other way to end than this. I want to thank all of my reviewers. You have done a wonderful job. Especially my gold medalist: Dana Rose and ****lilmissfireball you girls keep me writing and laughing. To my silver medalist: clarinetguardgeek07, Nissa-Cullen, and LordXeenTheGreat thanks for sticking with me till the end. And to all my bronze medal reviewers that are too many to mention by name you are all the best and I look forward to hearing from you on all my future stories.**

**Speaking of I have a new series that I am working on for the new year. This is slightly different than most of the stories that I have written but I hope that you will stay with me for it. I have a page on my website (justplanet [dot] webs [dot] com) that gives you a synopsis as well as an ****excerpt to get you excited.**

**I also have a poll on my profile that I really want everyone's opinions on. **

**Well that is all for this story and this year. Be sure to add me as a favorite author so that you are updated when I post my new story and I hope everyone has a great holiday and a safe and blessed New Year! **

**Don't make me blue; please review :)**


	21. Something Fun for the Holidays

_Disclaimer: Completely me but based off the poem 'Twas the Night Before Christmas_

"**Twas a Week Before Christmas**

'Twas a week before Christmas and my story was done.

The ending had come and another one I had begun.

By the creativity bug I had already been bitten

But this was different than anything I had written.

The page was before me all I had to do was type

Yet my fingers where still; there was no idea light.

So by the computer I was curled like a kitten by a fire.

Hoping I wouldn't have to retire.

My mind was a blank; the story was gone.

But I wanted to post something before it was too long.

When up in mind there arose such a blurring

I knew that plot was up in there stirring.

A twist for the story or maybe something more

Ideas were popping out galore.

My finger were moving faster than I could see

My mind was a frenzy with what this could be.

The excitement was shooting out of my smile

The pages were going by miles and miles.

Before I knew it I was almost to the end.

I wanted to show it to all you new friends.

Still the holidays are upon us there's no time to be had

If nobody read it and reviewed I would be so sad.

So I decided to make this a coming attraction

That way it might be anticipated in "New Moon" fashion.

I closed out my window with a sigh and a shrug

I thought of my new story as I drank from my holiday mug

I wanted you to know what would be coming soon

So starting the first you would be over the moon.

I took to my pen and started to write

All that I've shared with you on this night.

I hope you'll keep reading when I start reposting

Which I will resume after 2010 we finish toasting.

This is all I have to say

Except for maybe have a wonderful holiday.

And now I will I close with a small little tear

"My writing is done; I will see you next year!"

**AN: Just something fun for the holiday season. See you in 2010!!!**


	22. ATTENTION: NEW STORY ALERT

Hey every one, just wanted to let you know that I am back with my new story for the New Year. It is called Heart's Devotion and I hope you all check it out. Here is a little info on the premise.

**Title:** Heart's Devotion

**Rated:** M for language

**Summary:** When Bella is bitten and turned into a vampire things don't work out the way Edward hopes. There's someone else with a claim to her heart that makes Edward question whether he'll be able to spend forever with the woman he loves.

Can true love win out over legends? Can one word change the course of three lives? Is fate truly the strongest power there is?

I am really excited for this story. You can find it on my profile and I hope that you all come on over and see what is posted so far. I look forward to hearing from you HH


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